Effect House Branding
A brand refresh for TikTok's AR community.
TikTok Effect House is where creators build and publish AR effects for TikTok. By 2024 it had an established brand. What it needed next was a refresh: a more contemporary tone, a visual language with the range to reflect today's effect diversity, and a system flexible enough for the daily machine of campaigns, events, and creator education. That's the chapter I took over.
My Role
Brand operations lead. Inherited the existing brand in 2024, designed and rolled out the upgrade, and now run the day-to-day across campaigns, offline events, and creator education.
Key Decisions
Visual Language
The refreshed system builds on the Effect House logo's arch: a doorway between reality and virtual, infinitely extendable to express the diversity of effects creators make. The palette went brighter, the system more youthful and refined. Built to scale from in-app onboarding to a wristband at an offline event.
Campaigns
Seasonal effect campaigns and community spotlights. Each campaign reuses the brand system but flexes for the moment, whether it's back-to-school, holiday, or AI launches.
Events & Workshops
Invite-only workshops with the platform's top-tier creators. Each session introduces new capabilities and collects direct feedback that feeds back into the product.
Creator Education
A systematic tutorial program for both versions of the platform: Effect House on desktop, Mobile Effect Editor on phone. The refreshed brand sets the visual tone across every video, scaling from never-touched-AR basics to AI-driven tooling.
Brand System & Assets
A working library of templates, motion kits, and social cuts. Built for the marketing team, cross-functional design teams, and partner creators to use directly.
Outcome
The brand upgrade shipped across every creator-facing surface: in-tool visual refresh, ops campaigns, social channels, and creator education. Engagement moved with it.
- Campaign banner click-through up ~50%
- Refreshed social channels and new tutorial videos consistently pulling 50k+ views each
- Annual creator workshops in 2025 and 2026 brought the community together for hands-on connection and firsthand product feedback
The timing mattered: the refresh landed against the 2025 TikTok ban headwind, where a sharper brand voice helped rebuild creator confidence and bring engagement back up.
Credits
Brand Direction: DingDing Chung
2D: Yu Zhang, Junyu Diao, Jefrain Gallipoli, Diana Lee, Xiaopeng Jia
3D: Kai Yu
Motion: Alex Noelke, Shirley Bu, Suru Liu, Tari Inyeinengi