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Mealmate - helping users on meals planning in a fun and engaging way.

Character design, Brand identity, Visual design 

Introducing 'The hungry monster', a mascot to encourage users to stick to healthy meal planning.

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BACKGROUND 

For many people, the challenge of finding time, energy, and motivation to plan balanced meals tailored to their nutritional needs is daunting. Mealmate, a meal planning app, needed to connect emotionally with its users, helping them overcome this barrier in a fun and engaging way.

 

USER INSIGHT & CONCEPT 

We identified that food cravings often feel like an overwhelming urge — a "monster" inside us. Instead of fighting it, we aimed to turn this feeling into a positive, motivating force. Developing a mascot was an essential task for my role in this project‭. ‬It's important to inject a sense of life‭, ‬and personality into the‭ ‬brand‭. ‬It gives audiences a persona to relate to and form a connection with‭—someone friendly‭, ‬with perhaps a maternal aspect to‭ ‬feel familiar and trustworthy‭.‬

  • Designed a range of friendly monster mascots. These characters served as playful reminders to guide users back to healthier food choices.
  • Created a warm, encouraging tone with messages 
  • Balanced informative content with humor to ensure the app felt supportive rather than prescriptive.
  • In-app guidance to help users make healthier choices.
  • Social media content and relatable scenarios.
  • Email marketing campaigns with motivational tips and recipe ideas tied to the characters' storytelling.
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A group of monsters with different personalities‭: ‬smart‭ (‬always planning‭), ‬lazy‭ (‬to cook‭), ‬cheerful‭, ‬always hungry‭, ‬busy doing something else‮…‬‭. ‬ Personalities that are related to users‭.‬

BRAND EXPRESSION

Encouragement
Educational
Fun & Friendly

SUMMARY

The character system created long-term storytelling opportunities, helping Mealmate sustain engagement beyond just recipes. By turning food cravings into fun, empowering reminders, Mealmate shifted the narrative from restriction to positive behavior change — all with a dash of charm.

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Freelance project for a startup. Role: Logo, mascots, design system. Collaborated with a motion designer.

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Hey! For any collaboration and work, feel free to reach out to my email: kristenluu@icloud.com

+44 (0) 7542090218  |  Manchester, UK 


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