Apollo — Brand Design

Building a scalable brand system across product, campaigns, and lifecycle experiences

Two years leading brand and campaign design across product, lifecycle, and marketing surfaces, producing and scaling brand output across an AI SaaS platform at high volume.

The company

Apollo is an AI-powered sales platform that helps teams discover leads, automate outreach, and manage pipeline data at scale. It serves millions of users and operates as a high-velocity, product-led growth organization.

My role

Over two years, I worked across brand and campaign design, focusing on executing and scaling Apollo’s brand across marketing, product, and lifecycle surfaces.

I built and maintained a consistent brand system applied across web, onboarding, email, lifecycle, and social, ensuring high-quality output in a fast-paced production environment.

I partnered with marketing, product, and engineering to ship campaigns and production-ready assets at scale, translating concepts into repeatable design workflows and deployable outputs across channels.

Over two years, I worked across brand and campaign design, focusing on executing and scaling Apollo’s brand across marketing, product, and lifecycle surfaces.

I built and maintained a consistent brand system applied across web, onboarding, email, lifecycle, and social, ensuring high-quality output in a fast-paced production environment.

Over two years, I designed AI-powered, end to end experiences spanning onboarding, high traffic web surfaces, product storytelling, email, and paid social, crafting cohesive journeys from first impression through activation. I partnered cross functionally with marketing, product, and engineering to rapidly prototype, test, and scale new growth ideas.

I also expanded the web and email design systems to support faster experimentation and built AI driven tools that enabled marketing teams to generate high quality creative at scale.

My goal

My goal was to create a brand system that could be consistently executed across high-volume marketing and lifecycle production, enabling scalable campaign and product outputs across channels while improving clarity and consistency across touchpoints.

Contributors

Aaron Stump, Creative Director
Anton Aheichanka, Lead Designer
Brendan Walker, Lifecycle Manager
Johan Vilchez, Art Director
Manuela Moncayo, Sr. Product Designer
Min Kang, Web Designer
Raouia Boularbah, AI Expert
Spencer Ferris, Sr. Software Engineer

My responsibilities

Art Direction

Campaign Concepting

Brand Design

Illustration Systems

Visual Library & AI Workflows

Web Design

Storytelling Design

Motion Design

Lifecycle & Email

Systems Design

Cross-functional Collaboration

Production output

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Focused on high-volume production of marketing and lifecycle assets across web, email, social, and product-adjacent surfaces.

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Designed and shipped marketing assets across landing pages, onboarding, email, social, and pricing surfaces.

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Produced multi-variant campaign systems across acquisition, lifecycle, and paid channels, enabling rapid iteration across formats and audiences.

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Built modular templates and components for scalable, consistent production across teams.

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Created presentation, sales, and GTM assets for internal and external use.

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Delivered responsive variations across web, email, mobile, and social formats.

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Partnered with engineering on AI-assisted workflows for faster asset generation and campaign iteration, increasing throughput across production cycles.

Onboarding Experience

Extending the brand into product behavior

The onboarding flow was functional but lacked momentum. It guided users through steps without communicating value quickly or clearly enough.

The opportunity was to extend the brand directly into the product experience itself through motion, interaction, visual systems, and narrative pacing.

The onboarding flow was functional but lacked momentum. It guided users through steps without communicating value quickly or clearly enough.

The opportunity was to extend the brand directly into the product experience itself through motion, interaction, visual systems, and narrative pacing.

The onboarding flow was functional but lacked momentum. It guided users through steps without communicating value quickly or clearly enough.

The opportunity was to extend the brand directly into the product experience itself through motion, interaction, visual systems, and narrative pacing.

I explored multiple creative directions combining AI-generated illustration, photography, and motion systems, art directing across visual territories before defining the final adaptive UI approach.

Decisions around visual behavior, pacing, and hierarchy became central to shaping an onboarding experience that felt like a living system embedded into product behavior rather than decoration layered on afterward.

I explored multiple creative directions combining AI-generated illustration, photography, and motion systems, art directing across visual territories before defining the final adaptive UI approach.

↑ Activation

Improved after redesign

Email & Lifecycle

Building a scalable lifecycle communication system

The onboarding email flow existed but felt fragmented and static.

I restructured it into a milestone-based lifecycle system designed as a cohesive extension of the brand, aligning communication with user progression rather than fixed schedules.

The onboarding email flow existed but felt fragmented and static.

I restructured it into a milestone-based lifecycle system designed as a cohesive extension of the brand, aligning communication with user progression rather than fixed schedules.

The onboarding email flow existed but felt fragmented and static.

I restructured it into a milestone-based lifecycle system designed as a cohesive extension of the brand, aligning communication with user progression rather than fixed schedules.

The system introduced a more consistent visual and narrative framework across lifecycle touchpoints, extending Apollo’s brand into email in a more scalable and structured way.

To support production at scale, I partnered with engineering to build AI-assisted workflows for templates, messaging variations, and experimentation, reducing manual production overhead while increasing iteration speed.

The system introduced a more consistent visual and narrative framework across lifecycle touchpoints, extending Apollo’s brand into email in a more scalable and structured way.

+18%

Engagement uplift across onboarding lifecycle emails

Conversion

Designing clarity for complex AI products

Apollo’s pricing structure was powerful but difficult to navigate.

Instead of simplifying by removing information, we designed a guided decision experience layered onto pricing, helping users self-select the right plan based on intent.

This reframed pricing as part of the broader product and brand experience rather than a static conversion page, improving clarity and decision-making across audiences.

+14%

Conversion uplift after redesign

Data Landing Page

Designing structure across multiple audiences

As Apollo's data offering expanded, the landing page wasn't keeping up. It was technically accurate but easy to get lost in, dense in a way that served no one, particularly visitors who weren't already fluent in the product category.

Different audiences landed on the same page and left with different levels of clarity.

The challenge became designing a page that could flex across audiences while maintaining a coherent visual structure and storytelling system.

I redesigned the page in close collaboration with product and marketing, aligning messaging, visual hierarchy, and CTAs across audience types.

Generated illustration systems were integrated to reinforce consistency across the broader Apollo ecosystem, creating a more cohesive and recognizable visual language across surfaces.

The challenge became designing a page that could flex across audiences while maintaining a coherent visual structure and storytelling system.

I redesigned the page in close collaboration with product and marketing, aligning messaging, visual hierarchy, and CTAs across audience types.

Generated illustration systems were integrated to reinforce consistency across the broader Apollo ecosystem, creating a more cohesive and recognizable visual language across surfaces.

The challenge became designing a page that could flex across audiences while maintaining a coherent visual structure and storytelling system.

I redesigned the page in close collaboration with product and marketing, aligning messaging, visual hierarchy, and CTAs across audience types.

Generated illustration systems were integrated to reinforce consistency across the broader Apollo ecosystem, creating a more cohesive and recognizable visual language across surfaces.

Product Storytelling

Making technical features feel like human benefits

Apollo’s data product had real technical sophistication, but the experience communicated features more clearly than outcomes.

Visitors could understand what the product did, but not quickly enough why it mattered to them.

Working closely with product and marketing, I developed a storytelling framework that translated technical concepts into clearer narratives through modular content systems, structured layouts, and consistent visual patterns.

The system helped users understand relevance before depth, allowing storytelling and conversion to work together rather than compete for attention.

Apollo’s data product had real technical sophistication, but the experience communicated features more clearly than outcomes.

Visitors could understand what the product did, but not quickly enough why it mattered to them.

The system helped users understand relevance before depth, allowing storytelling and conversion to work together rather than compete for attention.

Apollo’s data product had real technical sophistication, but the experience communicated features more clearly than outcomes.

Visitors could understand what the product did, but not quickly enough why it mattered to them.

The system helped users understand relevance before depth, allowing storytelling and conversion to work together rather than compete for attention.

Collaborative Experimentation

Designing and testing at the speed of growth

I contributed to a structured experimentation program across high-traffic surfaces, testing both creative direction and narrative framing across campaign modules.

Key findings helped shape Apollo’s evolving brand system. Early value framing and trust signals consistently outperformed delayed storytelling approaches, while photography-style AI-generated creative outperformed illustration in high-scan environments. These findings directly influenced how visual systems and campaign art direction evolved across future launches.

These insights informed subsequent campaign systems, creative direction, and storytelling decisions across the organization.

I contributed to a structured experimentation program across high-traffic surfaces, testing both creative direction and narrative framing across campaign modules.

These insights informed subsequent campaign systems, creative direction, and storytelling decisions across the organization.

I contributed to a structured experimentation program across high-traffic surfaces, testing both creative direction and narrative framing across campaign modules.

These insights informed subsequent campaign systems, creative direction, and storytelling decisions across the organization.

+16%

CTR on primary CTAs

+14%

Engagement lift across tested hero variants

Design Systems Expansion

Building reusable systems for campaigns at scale

One-off design solutions slowed production and created inconsistency across campaigns.

I expanded Apollo’s design system into a modular framework for landing pages, lifecycle assets, and campaign experiences, improving consistency while enabling faster iteration across teams.

To support scale, I partnered with engineering to implement AI-assisted workflows that accelerated campaign variation, production, and creative iteration cycles.

I expanded Apollo’s design system into a modular framework for landing pages, lifecycle assets, and campaign experiences, improving consistency while enabling faster iteration across teams.

To support scale, I partnered with engineering to implement AI-assisted workflows that accelerated campaign variation, production, and creative iteration cycles.

I expanded Apollo’s design system into a modular framework for landing pages, lifecycle assets, and campaign experiences, improving consistency while enabling faster iteration across teams.

To support scale, I partnered with engineering to implement AI-assisted workflows that accelerated campaign variation, production, and creative iteration cycles.

Marketing & Social

Extending the brand through modular visual systems

Scaling a consistent brand across high-volume AI marketing required systems that could move quickly without fragmenting visually.

I designed a modular campaign system built around typography, motion, and reusable visual components, allowing creative to scale across formats while maintaining a cohesive visual language.

Each asset remained grounded in product storytelling, translating complex AI capabilities into clearer, high-signal narratives optimized for fast-scrolling environments.

To keep pace with campaign volume, I partnered with engineering to implement automated social templates within the Cognition AI agent. This allowed the team to run rapid messaging experiments and generate format variations without rebuilding assets from scratch each time, freeing up design bandwidth for higher-order creative direction and campaign development.

Scaling a consistent brand across high-volume AI marketing required systems that could move quickly without fragmenting visually.

I designed a modular campaign system built around typography, motion, and reusable visual components, allowing creative to scale across formats while maintaining a cohesive visual language.

Each asset remained grounded in product storytelling, translating complex AI capabilities into clearer, high-signal narratives optimized for fast-scrolling environments.

Scaling a consistent brand across high-volume AI marketing required systems that could move quickly without fragmenting visually.

I designed a modular campaign system built around typography, motion, and reusable visual components, allowing creative to scale across formats while maintaining a cohesive visual language.

Each asset remained grounded in product storytelling, translating complex AI capabilities into clearer, high-signal narratives optimized for fast-scrolling environments.

+22%

Social engagement lift

+17%

CTR improvement on paid campaigns

Visual Library & AI-Assisted Art Direction

Building a scalable image system across campaigns and surfaces

Campaign and lifecycle production required a visual language that could scale without relying on one-off asset creation for every surface.

Working closely with the creative team, we built and curated a library of AI-generated photography and illustration systems, defining style parameters, refining outputs toward brand consistency, and creating a scalable visual vocabulary shared across web, social, email, and campaigns.

This shifted image production from reactive and fragmented to more systematic and cohesive while reducing production time across touchpoints.

Campaign and lifecycle production required a visual language that could scale without relying on one-off asset creation for every surface.

This shifted image production from reactive and fragmented to more systematic and cohesive while reducing production time across touchpoints.

Campaign and lifecycle production required a visual language that could scale without relying on one-off asset creation for every surface.

This shifted image production from reactive and fragmented to more systematic and cohesive while reducing production time across touchpoints.

What I'd do differently

Shift earlier toward system-level design

The design system unlocked significant speed and consistency, but it was introduced reactively. Earlier investment would have reduced fragmentation across campaigns and lifecycle touchpoints.

I would also establish stronger baseline measurement before experimentation to better connect brand and creative decisions to downstream impact, especially in areas where clarity and storytelling influence performance indirectly.

The design system unlocked significant speed and consistency, but it was introduced reactively. Earlier investment would have reduced fragmentation across campaigns and lifecycle touchpoints.

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