ZeroTurnaround
Evolving the visual identity for a growing software company
Company
ZeroTurnaround
Industry
Software Development
Role
Senior Graphic Designer / Graphic Designer
Duration
5+ years
Skills
Creative Direction
Events
Trade Show Booth
Collateral Design
Illustration
Graphics
Project Management
Swag
Brand Guidelines
Office branding
Web Design
Overview
ZeroTurnaround was a leading Java developer tools company founded in Estonia in 2007. Known for it's flagship product JRebel, a plugin that eliminated redeploy times. Later also for XRebel, a lightweight Java profiler that helps developers find and fix code problems during development. ZeroTurnaround was acquired by Rogue Wave Software in 2017, which was then acquired by Perforce in 2019.
The goal was to position ZeroTurnaround as a thought leader to the Java community and showcase its products: JRebel, LiveRebel, XRebel.
Product marketing that understands Java development pain points, demonstrating deep technical knowledge, while being fun, witty and visually appealing to the developer audience.
My Role
Grew from Graphic Designer to Senior Graphic Designer, leading visual direction for the company as it scaled. Balanced design priorities between the parent company and its 6 sub-brands.
Was the primary graphic designer for cross-functional requests from teams across 4 global offices and time zones.
Helped scale the design team from 2 to 7 members. Mentored a designer.
Led campaign concept development
Coordinated with printers and vendors
Managed external contractors
Designed event collateral
Product illustrations and graphics
Applied designs to swag
Web design
Collaborated with marketing, developer relations, HR & events team
Team
Design Team
Collaborators
Final Outcome
The Java is Cured campaign captured the spirit of ZeroTurnaround as a company, showcasing its mix of tech innovation with a good dose of geekiness, humour and whimsy. Our concept was well received and the colourful, character-led illustrative style was an early embodiment of what ZeroTurnaround would become known in the following years.
Designed the "Geeky Awards" which was a yearly internal award ceremony celebrating employee achievements company-wide.
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Label designs for a custom beer series beer celebrating key moments at ZeroTurnaround, like the company's 10 year anniversary. A brand moment that came out of employee hobby interest in micro brewing, that turned into an internal beer brewing competition, and eventually an entire ZeroTurnaround beer line. Produced in collaboration with local Estonian brewery "Lehe Pruulikoda".
Sportswear team design for the Prague sales team participating in a Spartan Race.
Digital and physical holiday postcards refreshed on a yearly basis with new and playful themes.
Results
Served as primary graphic designer for cross-functional requests from teams across four global offices and time zones. Balanced design priorities between the company and its sub-brands — RebelLabs (developer think tank), vJUG (virtual Java User Group), GeekOut (annual conference), and suite of software products (JRebel, LiveRebel, XRebel).
6
Managed sub-brands under the company umbrella
4
Global office locations and timezones
50+
JIRA tickets handled on a large scale project