Aiya

Oki (Aleem)



Introduction
Oki is a Kazakhstani AI English learning app. The CEO reached out asking me to design a cat mascot. We spent a month and a half on the cat itself, iterating on paper, then Procreate, back and forth until the character felt right. The rest of the two years was app illustrations, the icon, and marketing reels. The brief was specific about personality: rebellious, headstrong, a cat with its own agenda, not one that performs for you.
Project Scope

Character Design, App Icon, Motion
Tools

Figma, Adobe Illustrator, Procreate




Overview

Aleem reached the top of the App Store in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan, surpassing Duolingo in the education category. Within two weeks, the app reached 250,000 users, growing to more than 300,000 downloads by December 2025. Throughout that growth, Oki remained a constant presence across the entire product experience.

Over nearly two years, the project evolved from a  mascot brief into a character system spanning product, marketing, and motion design. 





Research

Exploring how educational mascots communicate emotion, memorability, and the brand at small sizes.

Most educational mascots prioritize friendliness over personality. The goal for Aleem was to create a character memorable enough to feel like friend.

  1. Analyzed educational mascots to understand how personality is communicated through design

  2. Explored references from games, animation, and brand characters to identify a distinct visual direction

  3. Evaluated illustration styles based on readability, expressiveness, and performance at app-icon scale






Character Design

Exploring form, proportions, and attitude to create a mascot that felt memorable.

Explored multiple base shapes before landing on a rectangular silhouette that felt grounded and recognizable. Used large expressive eyes paired with upward-tilted corners to balance empathy with confidence. Iterated through dozens of sketches and digital concepts.





Design System

For the character to feel like a true part of the product, the visual language needed to extend beyond the mascot itself.

After finalizing Oki, I created over 100 illustrations that allowed the character to appear consistently throughout the app. The system expanded into environmental assets, app icons, and marketing materials, ensuring the same personality and visual language carried across every touchpoint.





Character Bible

As the illustration library expanded, consistency became as important as creativity. A character bible was created to define Aleem's personality, behaviors, and emotional range, ensuring every illustration felt true to the character.






Reflection

My first long-term client collaboration taught me the importance of thinking beyond individual deliverables.

Over nearly two years, the project evolved from a simple mascot brief into a character system spanning product, marketing, and motion design. The biggest lesson was the value of documentation. As Oki expanded across more than 100 illustrations and countless touchpoints, maintaining consistency became increasingly important. Looking back, establishing a formal brand and character guide earlier would have made the system easier to scale and manage.