RAY

Brand Identity

Art Direction

Product Design

A daily affirmation app designed to stand out in a crowded category.

Ray is a daily affirmation app that lets people record and play back their own words of encouragement. It was entering a crowded market where most competitors blur into the same soft gradients and stock serenity. I was brand designer and art director on a four-person team with a UX designer, a developer, and a strategist, and we had six weeks to build the identity from the ground up. Ray had to feel warm and credible to people of every age and every faith without leaning on any one of them, and it had to make the app's interactive features feel like part of the brand.

WHERE THE LOGO BECOMES THE BUTTON

Ray is built around a simple act: saying something kind out loud and hearing someone else say it back. Users record affirmations in their own voice and listen to affirmations recorded by others in the community. That exchange became the center of the brand. Most people open an app like this alone, often early in the morning or late at night. The identity had to make that moment feel less solitary, so that someone sitting on the edge of their bed could still sense a room full of people cheering them on.

The mark started with rays of sunlight, a nod to new beginnings and quiet self-reflection. It became something more: many separate lines coming from one shared source, like many voices meeting in one place. That idea carried through to the record/listen button, the control users touch every day. It took six rounds to get right. In the final version, the rays come straight from the logo and animate as audio waves. The same gesture works for speaking and for listening, so recording your own words and hearing someone else's feel like two halves of one conversation.

The sense of belonging guided every decision after that. The palette uses warm, lived-in light instead of clinical calm. The photography shows real, unpolished moments that viewers could picture themselves in. The tone of voice sounds like a friend, not a guru. The goal throughout was an app that feels personal when you're using it alone and communal at the same time.

A PALETTE PULLED FROM SUNRISE AND SUNSET

The palette follows the arc of a day. The primary colors are Tangerine, Peach Cream, Burnt Orange, and Cool Lavender, and deeper tones like Dark Midnight Blue and Serene Blue add contrast. I tested color and type combinations with the UX designer in the app's beta and chose DM Sans for its clarity on small screens. The photography is uplifting without being glossy. A full set of guidelines covers logo, color, type, imagery, and a hopeful, down-to-earth tone of voice, so Ray stays consistent as it grows.