Black Lily

The project

Black Lily sets up private AI on a server inside each firm's own office, for hedge funds, investment advisers and family offices. Before that it sold AI to oilfield and energy companies, and back then I made its brand and first site, along with the print and apparel, a pitch deck and a playbook for the founder's online presence.

When William Dorman, the founder, moved the company into finance, I redesigned the brand and the site to match. The first version was neon mint on almost black and looked pretty techy, so this time I wanted it to look more stable.

I kept the lily mark and switched to the softer green from Lily Desk, their chat app. I also put the site on one design system so the colors, type, spacing and motion all follow the same rules and remain consistent site-wide.

Year
2025
Role
Contract Brand and Web Designer
Services
  • Brand identity
  • Web design + Web development
Link
Live site

What the client said

“Working with Arshawn was super easy. He guided me through the entire design process, helping turn my rough idea into a finished and professional site. After he built it, I got multiple compliments on how professional and put together it looked, and I even closed a new client. It definitely helped me stand out. 10/10 recommend.”

William Dorman

William Dorman - CEO and Founder

Gallery

The Black Lily lockup: the lily mark beside the blacklily wordmark, white on near black.
The only copy of the mark was 483 pixels wide, so I redrew it as a vector.
The stacked lockup, the lily mark above the blacklily wordmark.
The stacked version, from the same drawing.
The mark annotated with two callouts, one naming the flower and one naming the bud held in negative space.
How the mark is built. The bud is the empty space between the petals.
The concept mark and the production mark side by side at four decreasing sizes each.
The concept mark and the final one at smaller and smaller sizes, to compare how each one looks small.
A phone standing on a brushed aluminium block in a dark studio, showing the Black Lily site.
The site on a phone.
Two production business cards on a pale surface, one reading Automate what matters.
The business cards, from before the move into finance.
A black polo shirt with the lily mark embroidered on the chest.
The mark embroidered on a polo, where up close you can see it's made of separate leaf shapes.
Three round Black Lily stickers applied to a laptop lid.
The mark, made into stickers.
The production hero graphic: a lit pipeline curving through space with green nodes along it.
The hero graphic I made for the first site, before the move into finance. It represents the oilfield pipes.
The earlier hero graphic, a white ribbon path through darkness with lit nodes along it.
Original. The earlier hero graphic, which was live before I replaced it.
The earlier hero section in full, headline and calls to action over the ribbon graphic.
Original. The full hero section with the original hero graphic.
An early lockup: a squarer four petal mark beside the blacklily wordmark.
Concept. My four petal redesign of the mark.
Two concept business cards, one carrying a service line and one the founder's details with a QR code.
Concept. A business card that listed out the services. The final card only has one line.
A phone against dark rock showing the Black Lily site.
Original. The first site on a phone, before the move into finance.
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