F5 Ugly Sweater Design 2023-2024

Illustration and production design

In 2023, the ugly sweater was brought in-house and I took responsibility for owning the project in 2023 and 2024. The purpose of the ugly sweater is for customers to sign up for meetings with F5 sales representatives to learn about F5 products and in turn they get an ugly sweater as a gift.

Objectives 2023-24: Needs to stand out from last year’s sweater, brighter colors,less blue, dev central icon, incorporate F5 history (load balancing, hardware), and a larger emphasis on our logo.

Duration: ~3 months

Other materials needed: Notecard, web images and social media promotion.

Sweater available here: https://shop.f5.com/products/f5-ugly-winter-sweater-2024-4th-generation

2024 Sketches

For this year’s design, we drew inspiration from the meaning of “F5,” symbolizing one of the most powerful tornadoes. The tornado represents F5’s ability to eliminate bots and security issues from our customers’ environments.

Refinements

final design | 2024

We decided to use a snow globe so that the idea of a dangerous tornado felt more whimsical. Key elements such as BIG-IP product icons, AI, security, and cloud symbols, along with winter-themed details, surround the tornado.

I opted for a bold green color to stand out from the past three years’ blue sweaters, adding a fresh and dynamic look to this year’s design.

2023 Sketches

The security campaign was prevalent during this time, so I was trying to push this grid concept with use of our Frankenstack characters.

Sweater Refinements

The SaaSquatch was brought in as an idea because the character was well loved already by people across F5 because of a marketing shirt I created. The SaaSquatch also emphasized “SaaS” which F5 was pushing towards in 2023.

Final Design | 2023

The stakeholders wanted this year’s design to feel bright, unline previous years, so I went with sky blue, and incorporated bright oranges to emphasize fall/winter.

For our 2023 sweater, we brought back the beloved SaaSquatch mascot, originally introduced in 2021 as part of a T-shirt design for the F5 store. Over the years, the SaaSquatch gained significant popularity, making it a favorite choice among stakeholders for this year’s design. We also incorporated the BIG-IP product icon and the DevCentral logo, fulfilling a specific request from the DevCentral team at F5

Print and Web Materials 2023 & 2024

Images of the sweater 2023-24