✢ PROJECT

Helping Colayer scale to €5M ARR through brand identity and platform redesign.

When I joined Colayer (then YBA Ventures), the company had a clear, ambitious goal: connect the world's top 3% of tech talent with major companies. They were already doing it, but their design was holding them back. Nothing looked or felt the same. The brand, the sales decks, and the internal app were all disconnected. As the Founding Product & Brand Designer, my job was to build their entire design foundation from scratch. I was brought in to design the brand, the marketing materials, and the internal platform that ultimately helped them scale to €5M ARR.

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My Role

Founding Designer

Team

Product Manager, FE, BE

Business Model

B2C, Coaching, Wellness

Timeline

2021-2023

Tools

Figma, Notion, Linear, Rive, User Interviews

✢ CONTEXT

Finding the Bottlenecks

Before I could make anything, I had to figure out what was broken. I sat down with the founders, project leads, and account managers to understand how they worked and what frustrated them.

The problem was obvious: the company looked great from the outside, but inside, the tools and brand were a mess.

We had three main problems:

A fuzzy brand: The website, sales decks, and logo didn't look like they belonged to a high-end company.
Clunky tools: The internal app for managing projects and freelancers was slow, confusing, and costing the team time.
No system: Every new sales deck or web page was built from scratch. It was slow and just created more inconsistency.

My goal was to fix all of this by building one clean, consistent system for the brand and the product.

✢ RESEARCH

Designing for Trust

Colayer has to impress two very different groups: top-tier freelancers and massive enterprise clients. Our design had to look and feel professional, trustworthy, and crystal clear.

1. Building the Brand

The first step was the brand itself. The company was changing its name to Colayer, so I led the entire rebrand.

I designed a new logo that felt modern and represented "collaboration" (the "Co" in Colayer).
I set the new color scheme: deep blues for trust, teals for technology, and a pop of amber for energy.
I created brand guidelines, templates, and stationery so everything looked like it came from the same company.

This new identity made Colayer finally look like the serious, high-end partner it already was.

2. Creating Sales & Marketing Tools

Next, I tackled the sales decks and marketing materials. I reworked their investor deck to tell a clearer story, focusing on results and impact. These weren't just "prettier" decks; they were tools that directly helped the team win new clients and raise money.

✢ USER FLOW

Building the App That Ran the Business

With the brand set, I focused on the internal app. This was the "engine" of the company—it managed everything from matching freelancers to projects, tracking progress, and reporting.

The old system was a nightmare of spreadsheets and outdated software. After talking with the people who had to use it every day, I zeroed in on what they actually needed:

One single place to manage all talent and projects.
A fast, smart way to match the right expert to the right project.
A clear view of who was doing what and when it was due.

I redesigned the entire thing from the ground up. The new app included:

A main dashboard for managers to see project status at a glance.
A "smart matching" tool that suggested the best freelancers based on their skills and availability.
A much simpler way to track project progress and cut down on busywork.

We tested the new designs with the internal team and made changes quickly. Within a few weeks, people were finishing tasks 35-40% faster and actually liked using the tool.

✢ WIREFRAMES

Creating a Design System

To stop this from becoming a mess all over again, I built Colayer's first design system in Figma. This was our single source of truth.

It was a library of all our reusable parts:

Buttons, forms, cards, and modals
Typography and color rules
Clear documentation for engineers

This system made building new things much faster. It also guaranteed that our website, app, and marketing all looked and felt like Colayer, no matter who was building it.

✢ DESIGN

The Results

This work had a huge impact on the business:

The new brand gave Colayer a premium, credible identity that matched its top-tier talent.
The new internal app cut project setup time by 40%, making the whole team more efficient.
The polished pitch decks and marketing materials helped the company scale to €5M ARR.
The design system gave the company a stable, consistent foundation to keep growing.

Helping Colayer scale to €5M ARR through brand identity and platform redesign.

Finding the Bottlenecks

Before I could make anything, I had to figure out what was broken. I sat down with the founders, project leads, and account managers to understand how they worked and what frustrated them.

The problem was obvious: the company looked great from the outside, but inside, the tools and brand were a mess.

We had three main problems:

A fuzzy brand: The website, sales decks, and logo didn't look like they belonged to a high-end company.

Clunky tools: The internal app for managing projects and freelancers was slow, confusing, and costing the team time.

No system: Every new sales deck or web page was built from scratch. It was slow and just created more inconsistency.

My goal was to fix all of this by building one clean, consistent system for the brand and the product.

Designing for Trust

Colayer has to impress two very different groups: top-tier freelancers and massive enterprise clients. Our design had to look and feel professional, trustworthy, and crystal clear.

1. Building the Brand

The first step was the brand itself. The company was changing its name to Colayer, so I led the entire rebrand.

I designed a new logo that felt modern and represented "collaboration" (the "Co" in Colayer).

I set the new color scheme: deep blues for trust, teals for technology, and a pop of amber for energy.

I created brand guidelines, templates, and stationery so everything looked like it came from the same company.

This new identity made Colayer finally look like the serious, high-end partner it already was.

2. Creating Sales & Marketing Tools

Next, I tackled the sales decks and marketing materials. I reworked their investor deck to tell a clearer story, focusing on results and impact. These weren't just "prettier" decks; they were tools that directly helped the team win new clients and raise money.

Building the App That Ran the Business

With the brand set, I focused on the internal app. This was the "engine" of the company—it managed everything from matching freelancers to projects, tracking progress, and reporting.

The old system was a nightmare of spreadsheets and outdated software. After talking with the people who had to use it every day, I zeroed in on what they actually needed:

One single place to manage all talent and projects.

A fast, smart way to match the right expert to the right project.

A clear view of who was doing what and when it was due.

I redesigned the entire thing from the ground up. The new app included:

A main dashboard for managers to see project status at a glance.

A "smart matching" tool that suggested the best freelancers based on their skills and availability.

A much simpler way to track project progress and cut down on busywork.

We tested the new designs with the internal team and made changes quickly. Within a few weeks, people were finishing tasks 35-40% faster and actually liked using the tool.

Creating a Design System

To stop this from becoming a mess all over again, I built Colayer's first design system in Figma. This was our single source of truth.

It was a library of all our reusable parts:

Buttons, forms, cards, and modals

Typography and color rules

Clear documentation for engineers

This system made building new things much faster. It also guaranteed that our website, app, and marketing all looked and felt like Colayer, no matter who was building it.

The Results

This work had a huge impact on the business:

The new brand gave Colayer a premium, credible identity that matched its top-tier talent.

The new internal app cut project setup time by 40%, making the whole team more efficient.

The polished pitch decks and marketing materials helped the company scale to €5M ARR.

The design system gave the company a stable, consistent foundation to keep growing.