In January 2015, Nylas hired Pictogram to create a gorgeous and unique website to match its new brand identity and introduce its plans for an advanced new email client built on their Sync Engine platform. During two weeks, Pictogram worked with Nylas to deliver a beautiful, responsive website filled with inviting illustrations and elegant styling.
The Nylas team is a diverse bunch, so there was a need to break the ‘typical startup website’ mold. Plenty of websites look nice, but lack personality.
Our exploration was kicked off by exploring a variety of highly visual ideas that were actually unique and evocative, while still communicating the qualities of Nylas’ products.
The most important thing to design was the main page graphic, which would also be used as the image supporting their new product announcement.
Out of several concepts for this illustration and the general website design, we arrived at a retro-futuristic theme of space exploration. The hopeful exploratory spirit matched the ambition of Nylas perfectly, and the aesthetic is friendly and recognizable.
Now that the design direction was solid, but the task was on Pictogram to create a solid set of illustrations.
We went through lots of varying rocket and spacecraft designs before settling on a perfect mix of friendly and aerodynamic, and found a scenery to match the brand
colors and warmth.
The exploratory yet friendly theme was matched with the ‘The Future of Email’ caption.
Inspired by the typesetting of science fiction movie, book, and comic cover designs from the 1950s, the main page illustration and blog post graphic’s titling design was a joy to draw.
The end result speaks for itself. See it in action here:
Additional illustrations were made for the blog post to strengthen the message. A personal favorite: illustrating cross-platform compatibility with various planets!
View the entire blog post with illustrations here.
Nylas didn’t just need a beautiful set of illustrations done: there was still a whole website to be designed. After creating a solid color palette and type guidelines the pages were steadily mocked up.
Nylas had an existing product (Sync Engine) that needed a brand new product detail page as well. One of the concepts presented in the conceptual phase came in handy here, as it was used it to illustrate the Sync Engine’s technological foundation with HTML canvas animation. An initial sketch quickly became reality:
The beautiful effect of small pulses traveling around the sync engine header was achieved using HTML 5 Canvas. Credit goes to Ben Gotow for his help in making this design come alive. Check out the source code on the webpage if you are interested in suchs things!
View the final Sync Engine page in all its glory on the Nylas website.
Apart from these pages Pictogram also delivered unique designs for the Jobs, About, and various other pages. Check out the entire website and blog announcement on the Nylas website.
Want to hire Pictogram for your project? Get in touch.
