Conceptualize, design, and develop a mascot for DSK - a major Bulgarian bank. The mascot is part of the bank’s rebrand and will be featured in their mobile app. Alongside the mascot, we also had to integrate the character into relevant contexts.
For this project, our client came in with a clear brief and a solid vision. We had to come up with a mascot that was fresh, fun, and appealing to younger users. Think: not your average dry, corporate bank look. We were aiming for standout design with a friendly, relatable face that feels very now – but still has legs for the long run. The one guiding rule? Think outside the box.
To get the best ideas flowing, we created two in-house teams. Each team had its own project manager and senior designer, and both were tasked with creating a completely different mascot concept. No collaboration. No cross-talk. We even had them work remotely to keep things clean and influence-free.
It was a solid creativity experiment – equal parts team-building and artistic showdown.
That was the question kicking off our brainstorm. More specifically:
What makes the perfect mascot for a bank that’s trying to talk to young, smart users?
Should it be animate or inanimate? Human? Animal? Creature from another dimension?
Coming up with a mascot might sound cute, but it’s actually tough business. That’s the brand’s face, its first impression, its personality. Ideally, it should also create an emotional connection with users. So we brainstormed hard and spent double the time refining the concepts.
The Winner: A sporty little corgi, created by our illustrator, Nikki. He’s adorable, smart, and loyal – an absolute legend. The sporty attire added a sense of movement and energy, which lined up perfectly with the vibe of a modern, fast-paced banking app.
Once the corgi was finalized, it was time to bring him to life – over and over again.
Next step: design every screen of the app and figure out how the mascot fits naturally into each one. And yes, there are over a hundred screens. So that meant over a hundred initial concepts. Over a hundred pieces of feedback. Then once again over a hundred concepts…
Pretty soon, the whole team was pitching in with ideas while Nikki churned out daily illustrations like a caffeine-fueled design machine.
Every screen had to be not only visually catchy but instantly readable, on brand, and small enough to fit your phone.
On top of that, the client really wanted the app to feel user-first – not just usable, but fun, friendly, and human. Even the screens prompted by a user mistake needed to be humorous, making the corgi the butt of the joke.
After all the designs were finalized and approved by the client to their last detail, Alex stepped in with her magic and animated some of the illustrations.
Good app design means thinking through the whole user journey. That includes not just UX, but how the visuals evolve with each interaction. Nikki’s goal was to build a cohesive story with the corgi at its center – reacting and staying perfectly “in character” from screen to screen.
Seeing an idea become a living, breathing (well, animated) character used by thousands of people daily is the kind of payoff creatives dream about.
