The client requested three different billboard designs at varying scales and ready-to-ship Illustrator files prepared for a local printing agency. The timeline of this project was around 2 weeks.

At the time, AfterQuery lacked an established brand identity or design system. Working without formal guidelines, I relied on design intuition and a close reading of the company’s existing visual language to inform my direction.

Knowing a rebrand was upcoming, I made a deliberate choice to anchor the work in a light, neutral palette, which I thought to be flexible enough to remain relevant through an identity transition without requiring a full redesign. I drew from a subtle black and white duotone pattern I had seen in their existing website and marketing materials, and carried it through the billboard compositions to create visual cohesion with their existing assets.

As with most of my projects, ideas started on paper to roughly figure out an ideal composition. I had never worked on a large-scale graphic project such as a billboard before, so I put extra care and thought into accessibility.

Afterwards, I moved my ideas into Figma, creating visual motifs within Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop and entering them into a canvas. I’ve heard others describe data companies as the opposite of creativity—I understand that many designers are fearful of AI, however I personally am excited by all the new possibilities that AI creates for designers, which is why I went for a playful look in these billboards.

An interesting challenge when it comes to data companies is brand balance. Data companies essentially have two customers: data experts, who are relied upon to bring in training data and are often hired on a contractual basis, and the AI labs, who are tech-forward and look for enterprise trust in a brand. To support these needs, I went for a motif that was both playful and academic. Paper planes and magnifying glasses seemed to be a nice balance between those two identities.

This was my first project with AfterQuery, and it laid the groundwork for what would eventually become a broader brand guide. Frequent communication and iteration with the client made it easier to understand their design sensibilities and desired direction over time.

The project was also my introduction to professional contract work. As my first high-profile design challenge, it taught me a great deal — particularly around graphic design handoffs with external agencies, and the importance of designing with future brand changes in mind.