Tony Jaramillo

art Direction

The octocat's value was immediately evident when I started at GitHub in 2012. Aside from being wildly popular inside and outside the company, the character had real design advantages. It was relatable, versatile, and had a unique silhouette that made a strong brand mark.

In my first couple of years at the company, the vast majority of new octocat designs were pop culture references. They were topical and fun, but GitHub grew too big. We had to create something we could own, so we focused on creating our character IP.

I spent the next ten years building a team of incredible artists to create this octocat universe. We used story as the unifier so the brand would have flexibility in style and mediums without sacrificing consistency. Below is a small sample of the incomparable work my team produced over the years.

I was lucky to be at the helm of this group of absolute talents.

CHaracters

There are countless octocats roaming distant planets, but Mona is our octocat. Our story focuses on her and the beings around her, which grew in numbers over the years. We aligned her story with the GitHub product, so when we saw an opportunity for a new product (or feature) mascot, we jumped at the chance to expand the cast of characters.

Environments

Mona needed a lab, which is where we started. But we wanted her universe to be expansive like our community. GitHub, the product, enables developers to collaborate worldwide in an instant. We tried to mirror that speed and ease by allowing octocats to travel using cutting-edge technology. This tech enabled us to create infinite new worlds and creatures.

Sites

Octocats were used sparingly in our marketing sites. It wasn't often they appeared, but when they did, it was important not to diverge from the story. The site design elements were specially tailored to maintain this reality.

Events

We often partnered with the Events team to develop brand guides for various conferences, meetups, etc. It was a different side of the brand as it allowed us to interact directly with fans through multiple forms of interactive art and design.

Culture

One of our most important responsibilities was to help cultivate the company's culture, which explains why we sometimes designed projects to show employees appreciation or just for fun.

One github

This poster was a visual representation of the company. It spans globally and includes the majority of our products. We distributed posters to all employees.

Hubber Appreciation

GitHub wanted to celebrate employees' collective contributions to the company, so my team created something tangible to mark these occasions.

The universe/space them was prevalent in so much of our branding already, and we thought rockets exemplified team effort, advancement, and exploration.

On their first day, a new employee would receive a rocket (starter) with their handle on the base. After that, any large event within the company would trigger a new section of the fuselage (and tower) to be created and distributed.

Merch

Shop merch covered the gambit. We designed stickers, figurines, t-shirts, pins, hats, posters, hoodies... In addition, we collaborated with the Shop team to create designs supporting all types of campaigns, from conferences to summits to meetups and more.

Hubot

GitHub decided to focus on the Hubot project and wanted a shop item to release at our conference. João Ribeiro designed this beautiful figurine, as well as the packaging for that event.

Blanktocat

Each year GitHub hosts its flagship conference, “Universe.” In 2018, the theme was “Build the Future,” so João Ribeiro and Ruby Jazz teamed up and produced a blank figurine for fans to customize themselves.

Office Branding

We were a global company and had offices around the world. We partnered with the Offices team on every new build-out to create a welcoming space for employees leveraging our brand. Blending the company culture with each office's geographic location was imperative and produced remarkable results.

Artist Partnership Project (office art)

We reached out to local artists in office regions to commission murals. The goal was to see our brand through their artistic lens.

Animation

Animation was one of our superpowers at the company. We had incredible motion graphics and character animators who brought life to all kinds of designs - from title sequences to games to animated shorts. You can find many more examples in the various projects on this site.