Keen
Taking psychic services from a niche audience to a mass-wellness audience
What we did
Industries
Keen is an online platform that connects people to psychics in seconds. Over 25 years it had gained a loyal fanbase, but a niche one. Our brief was to expand Keen’s reach by making talking to a psychic feel as natural as logging onto a mindfulness app, or checking your astrology chart.
Consider the context. Wellness tech and AI chatbots as therapists have boomed, and while certain ancient practices have gained popularity, psychics have been left behind. Because of this, our task wasn’t just to redefine Keen, but to redefine the entire category.
When you think psychics, you think future predictors of yore. But research showed that’s not actually what people get from talking to one. Their true value was found in their humanity, and their ability to offer a different perspective no matter what the question, rooted in human intuition and wisdom.
This insight became our guide, helping us to create a brand that embraces the complexity of modern life, and celebrates psychics’ ability to give us clarity within the chaos of it. We built an immersive, illustrated world which users can explore to gain new perspectives on work, relationships and all the other stuff that makes life, well, life.
This vibrancy and real life-ness is true to Keen’s product. And, it’s distinct in the wellness landscape that often uses sterile minimalism to create a quiet space to retreat from life, rather than being smack bang in the middle of it. In this way, Keen offers a fresh, soulful take on what wellbeing brands can look and feel like.
The joy of containment
There's a great comfort in being able to see life from the right altitude, where you’re far enough back to make sense of it, but never so far you lose the plot. We brought this feeling to life with a brand world that holds the richness of life at a safe distance, allowing users to zoom in and out as they please.
The circle: a portal to focus
An immersive world needs a compass. For Keen, this comes in the form of circles, which build a sense of containment, focus and unity.
Our circular motifs are drawn from a variety of reference points, from astronomy to astrology and the overview effect — the well-documented cognitive shift experienced by astronauts seeing the earth from space.
Colourful framing devices hold, crop and spotlight relatable moments, further encouraging agency and discovery.
Continuing the fluidity, the wordmark fuses sweeping, energetic curves and symmetrical letterforms that hold the word in place.
Repeating circular forms and softened junctions carry a sense of circularity through to the smallest details.
A tapestry of earthly delights
Working with María Jesús Contreras, we built a vast digital tapestry that brings psychic support into modern life. It weaves spiritual symbols into everyday, relatable scenes, with joyfully surrealist flourishes.
Elements can be extracted into micro illustrations that dance across everyday applications, showing the clarity Keen brings to your day.
The illustration is rich in detail that rewards a second look. It is complex and vast by design, offering a stark contrast to tech-forward wellness minimalism.
Marrying the ancient with the modern
Keen brings ancient wisdom to modern day problems. The identity embraces this meeting, combining old motifs with today’s sensibilities. This is found in colour, typography and tone of voice.
The identity includes three cuts of Season, a typeface with carved serif features and an approachable, tech-forward sans to function clearly in the digital space.
The colour palette centres around earthly red tones, one of man's earliest pigments. Combined with a secondary palette of rich digital hues, it reflects the vibrancy of our illustrative world.
The verbal identity follows the same principle, with a voice that is warm, reassuring, knowing and conversational, making the world of spiritual guidance feel relevant to the questions and experiences of everyday life.
A maximalist gasp in a world of minimalist wellness design
You don’t log-in to Keen. You enter it. The website presents the digital tapestry in all its glory. Users choose their way through the landscape, zooming in and out at their own pace. In doing so, they find agency in engaging with life's complexity, and get access to psychics who can help them find clarity.
Illustration enhances the digital experience at every turn, from big immersive moments to small details that invite you deeper into the Keen experience.
The result
Keen taught us that appealing to a mass audience doesn’t mean watering down who you are, and that sometimes going against the grain makes commercial sense.
Ariana Hellebuyck, Chief Marketing Officer at Ingenio, said: "We wanted a brand that felt relevant to the way people approach wellbeing today while staying true to the spiritual expertise that has always set Keen apart. Mother Design struck that balance perfectly, creating an identity that feels more accessible and trustworthy without losing the authenticity of who we are."
"Our ambition wasn't simply to modernise Keen, it was to change how people think about psychic guidance.”
Ariana Hellebuyck
Chief Marketing Officer, Ingenio
Heartland
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