Rodeo Drive - Empty State Illustrations
Rodeo Drive, a SaaS project management platform, lacked an authentic and cohesive illustration style for its empty states. This gap affected the brand’s visual identity, leaving certain areas of the product feeling generic and disconnected from the company’s personality.
I was tasked with designing a set of unique, on-brand illustrations for various empty states across the platform. These needed to not only reflect the purpose of each screen—such as estimates, time tracking, reports, and invoices—but also build a memorable visual persona that embodied the Rodeo Drive identity.
At the heart of the concept is a charming cactus character with simple, minimal expressions—reflecting the brand’s approachable yet professional tone. Working closely with the marketing and product teams, I hand-sketched ideas, refined them into a consistent style, and developed a color palette that could adapt to two distinct user scenarios:
Vibrant colored illustrations to energize new users and encourage exploration during onboarding.
Neutral gray-toned illustrations to reassure active users when a page is temporarily empty, offering calm guidance.
The final deliverables included a full set of illustrations—two variations for each empty state—creating a consistent and engaging visual language across the platform. The new illustration system reinforced brand recognition, improved the user experience, and added a human, approachable personality to the software.
