Through deep immersion in the community, partnering with the Workday Developer Team, researching, and attending events like DevFest, TDX, and our own DevCon, one thing became clear: to win developers' business, we had to market specifically to them. Developers don’t respond to traditional marketing; they want to participate, not watch. They want to be shown, not told.
My goal was to strategically evolve our visual identity to give developers a world entirely their own. I wanted to create a space designed with and for them, where they feel seen, celebrated, and ready to build.
I developed a look and feel that celebrates how these builders conceptualize, collaborate, and create. Ultimately, the success of the project relied on finding the perfect balance between a unique, authentic developer-centric layer and the strength of the core Workday brand.
Workday
Developer Brand
Developers are historically an impossible audience to design for. Try to give them traditional corporate graphics, and they see right through it. Try too hard to be "cool," and they will ruthlessly roast you in the developer forums.
Enter Mara Ezekiel. Mara looked at standard corporate design systems, said "why not?", and single-handedly forged a distinct, visual universe specifically for the Workday Build developer world. She created a design language that somehow respects developer culture while still feeling distinctly Workday - a tightrope walk that usually requires a full agency and a year of soul-searching.
She then applied this magic to our swag, resulting in developer shirts so legitimately cool that the company store suffered multiple inventory crashes. Working with Mara is a joy - mostly because her response to my absurd ideas is always "let's do it." (Which may be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your perspective. But our audience seems to love it, so we'll call it awesome.)
The Elements
The Grid and Sparks
The grid created a modular foundation where intersecting lines ignite sparks: the magic of inspiration, community, and AI coming together.
The Gradient
I evolved our core “Night” gradient into a brighter “Midnight” one. Its contrast against a new, deeper blue created a warm, glowing environment defined by a strong light source.
The Illustrations
By providing clear art direction and stylistic references, I developed a custom illustration library using Gemini. My goal was to create a style that felt distinct from standard Workday illustrations while remaining part of the same visual ecosystem.
To maintain brand alignment, I stayed true to the established 'spot illustration' format and the perspective of objects. However, I leaned into a new color palette, lighting, and environment to set them apart. Unlike typical illustrations designed for light backgrounds, these were built for 'dark mode.' This environment allowed me to emphasize a vibrant 'glow' effect and strong light reflections, creating a library tailored specifically for developers.
The Photography
I set out to build a brand where developers could truly see themselves. Using photography from our 2025 DevCon photoshoot, we made that a literal reality. My goal was to communicate that the Workday brand wouldn’t exist without its contributors. I wanted developers to see their own faces on our website, social media, keynotes, and event signage, fostering a sense of pride in being part of this community, and inspiring other attendees to wonder, “How do I become one of them?”
Though the photoshoot preceded the new brand identity, it became a foundational influence on its direction. The intensity of the light sources, the warm palette, and the bold, inspired stances of the subjects shaped our visual language. We intentionally chose to keep the portraits within their original captured backgrounds rather than silhouetting them against new gradients. This decision added a layer of human dimension and environmental texture that perfectly complemented the broader brand system.
Mara is a gem. In fact, she is the definition of an excellent partner and teammate. She is consistent, reliable, authentic, and prompt and the work she produces is outstanding.
Mara helps the dev program shine in everything it produces, and in a delightfully well-branded way. She keeps us honest and makes sure we look good.
She has moved mountains for us and she has our total trust. Thank you, Mara for everything you and your whole team do! I am extremely thankful to get to work with you!
The Spectrum of Expression
The look and feel is built on the idea of modular systems, celebrating those key points of intersection where the grid lines meet- inspiration, excitement, energy, community, and AI.
The direction operates on a spectrum, where the playfulness inherent in the act of building is expressed from least expressive to most expressive. From messaging at the forefront, to heroing the people at heart of the community, to playful and highly expressive moments, I’ve created a spectrum of expressions.
And like the act of building, there are layers to it, there’s progression and development, there’s structure and frameworks, and there’s creativity built on top of it. It can be flexed from end to end along with event programming, and community touchpoints across Workday.
I just got all the feels.
This is so in line with where we are today.
