The Willow

Branding
Lead Designer and Illustrator at DBOX
View Website

Client: Naftali Group
Location: New York
Year: 2024 - 2025

As the illustrator and graphic designer on The Willow Gramercy, I developed a custom illustration system that translates the building’s neighborhood, amenities, and residential atmosphere into a cohesive visual language. Working closely with an art director and senior partner, I designed a series of illustration icons depicting architectural details, park elements, music instruments, vinyl records, florals, and symbolic figures such as mermaids, each referencing the cultural memory and everyday rhythm of Gramercy, Flatiron, and NoMad. Individually legible yet systemically connected, these icons were arranged into a modular pattern that became the foundation of the brand identity, introducing a sense of intimacy and whimsy to a refined residential context.

The illustration system was extended into the brand brochure, where it operates in dialogue with CGI renderings produced by the DBOX visualization team. In collaboration with the art director and senior partner, I co-designed the brochure layout to guide readers through the residences, amenities, and surrounding neighborhood while maintaining a consistent narrative tone across visual mediums. The integration of illustrated identity and renderings (created by CGI team at DBOX) creates a layered storytelling approach and positions the brand as both timeless and lived-in, grounded in place while inviting residents into an imagined daily experience.

Folder Design

To extend the illustrated identity into motion, I created a stop motion animation for The Willow Gramercy marketing campaign, drawing directly from the established illustration system. Centered on one of the brand’s key motifs, a miniature dachshund, the animation follows the puppy as it moves through the residences, navigating domestic interiors before wandering outward toward the surrounding neighborhood. The journey culminates in Gramercy Park, where the dog comes to rest beneath a willow tree that subtly transforms into the W brand mark.
By animating the illustrations and introducing narrative progression, the piece brings warmth, vitality, and a sense of everyday life to the brand, translating the static visual language into a living, experiential moment that reinforces the building’s character and sense of place.

Making of
Video

Mobile Website