Takeoff Bird Stress Ball
Role: Lead Visual Designer (2D)
Collaboration: 3D Artist (Max Porter)
Scope: Brand translation, product design, production-ready assets
Takeoff by IXL is a playful K–5 curriculum brand within the IXL family. To extend the brand beyond books and screens, the team created the first custom-made physical product for Takeoff: a bird-shaped stress ball designed for administrators, teachers, and event giveaways.
This project transformed Takeoff’s signature origami bird into a tangible object that could live in educators’ hands and on classroom desks, making the brand feel more human, memorable, and fun.
Concept
“Turn the brand symbol into something you can hold and keep.”
The origami bird already represented growth and progress in the Takeoff brand. The idea was to bring that symbol into the physical world as a friendly, squeezable object that felt approachable and on-brand.
Challenge
This was the first custom merchandise item created for Takeoff, which meant there was no prior product example to build from, so we built everything from scratch. The bird shape needed to stay true to the brand while being simple enough for the molding process. The graphics had to remain legible on a curved, flexible surface, and the color had to stay consistent with the Takeoff palette within vendor limitations.
Solution
The Takeoff bird was transformed from a flat brand symbol into a simple, friendly physical form that could be manufactured while staying true to the identity. High-contrast graphics and brand colors were carefully chosen to remain visible on a curved, squeezable surface and to stay consistent with the Takeoff visual system.
The final design strikes a balance between simplicity and recognition — clean enough for mass production, yet distinctive enough to be approved as the first custom Takeoff product for events and educator outreach.
Design Process
This work was highly collaborative and iterative. I partnered closely with a 3D artist to understand the technical limits of modeling in Cinema 4D and how much detail could realistically be added or needed to be removed for production. I created the flat bird artwork, color palette, and graphic styling, which were then translated into a production-ready 3D model.
We went through multiple rounds of screen reviews and physical mockups. We tested how the bird looked and felt in hand, how the logo printed on curved surfaces, and how clearly it read as a Takeoff brand object. Each round helped refine the form until it felt both manufacturable and unmistakably on brand.
Outcome
The bird stress ball became the first custom Takeoff merchandise item produced for events and school outreach. It provided a friendly, physical extension of the Takeoff brand and gave educators a tangible reminder of the program.
Seeing the Takeoff bird move from a flat illustration into a 3D object showed how the brand system could live consistently across digital, print, and product experiences.
