Michael Cherkashin leads design at Ivy Energy, a San Diego-based pioneer in multi-family solar solutions. Recently, Ivy Energy underwent a major design transformation, unveiling new branding and a website that earned prestigious international awards by CSS Design Awards, CSS Winner, Awwwards and Orpetron. In this exclusive interview with DSCENE Magazine’s Zarko Davinic, Michael shares insights into the vision behind creating an award-winning website that transforms how property owners and tenants engage with clean energy, discussing its challenges and impact.
Congratulations on your recent awards. Recognition from four prestigious organizations speaks to the project’s impact. Can you share the background and the challenges you aimed to address? – We recently completed a strategic rebrand. As Ivy continues expanding into new markets, it became clear that we needed a new website. The original site was focused on selling our products and services, but as our offering has evolved we identified the need to address not only prospective customers but also tenants, who are the end users of Ivy’s platform. The main challenge was balancing messaging. We had to speak to property owners in a language aligned with ROI and operations, while also communicating benefits to tenants. This is a known challenge in the industry referred to as the split incentive problem. It’s a delicate balance, but having a strong brand foundation and deliberate design solutions helped guide the storytelling.
Can you walk us through the site and what made it so impactful? – Instead of a traditional layout, I used storytelling techniques to address the split-incentive problem, showing how both property owners and tenants can view energy as a shared asset. Typically, people assume the landlord profits while the tenant just pays the bills. Ivy changes that dynamic. With our model, both parties become partners working toward shared sustainability and cost savings goals.
To make this message resonate, I designed an interactive 3D animation that walks users through how onsite solar works. It visually demonstrates how the system benefits both owners and tenants. This interactive layer helped immerse users in the experience and made the message more clear and memorable.
Competing with the world’s best agencies and designers is a tough task. What innovations have you introduced to web-design that contributed to the awards? – Beyond the immersive 3D hero section and unique animations, I introduced a custom cursor that interacts with website elements, offering contextual tips and calls to action. While custom cursors aren’t new, integrating context-sensitive prompts was a novel approach I developed for Ivy. This was driven by the need to serve both sales leads and end users without overwhelming the site with heavy marketing. For example, the cursor shifts from a circle to a pill-shaped CTA, like “schedule a demo,” when users are in relevant sections. It also provides intuitive feedback, such as “close” when hovering over a modal window. These microinteractions guide the users without interrupting.
How did you approach innovation in a project with different user groups and expectations? – I started with Ivy’s core brand pillars: Transformation, Partnership, and Resiliency. If you look at the site, it feels modern and dynamic, maybe even a little fancy for some, but it’s also extremely simple and clean to make it accessible for all users. This contrast was intentional expressing the transformation and novel approach we’re aiming for in the energy space. I also wanted the site to reflect partnership. Tenants and owners are usually seen as separate parties, but here, they’re part of the same system, so I used precise storytelling promoting a kind of shared ownership mindset. If tenants use more solar energy, the whole community benefits.
In addition to scoring highly in UI, UX, development, and innovation, there are intriguing graphic design elements. Can you talk more about those? – Since Ivy pioneered multi-family solar, an industry that didn’t exist before, it’s a very novel concept to explain with all its nuances. So there was a need for a clean solution to explain different aspects of multi-family solar. I came up with a unique idea to place playful yet minimalistic illustrations, like people, pets, or cars, on real-world photography. This approach turned out to be really effective in explaining the complexities of the solar program while being unique and memorable, grabbing people’s attention. These semi-illustrative scenes showcase various aspects of a solar program. For example, using more solar energy can earn you money, or participating in the program for just one month could help someone avoid CO2 emissions equivalent to driving 500 miles in a gasoline car. This example shows how graphic design, storytelling, and user experience work holistically to address challenging problems.
What’s next for you on this journey for Michael Cherkashin? – I’m passionate about the intersection of graphic design and product innovation, especially when it drives measurable outcomes. That’s why I partnered with Ivy, and I’m grateful the company entrusted me with critical design initiatives. Currently, my team and I are working on designing a new tenant experience that will be transformative, not just for Ivy but for the broader utility and energy sector. My aim is to create designs that don’t just win awards but also shape and improve how people interact with the world, drive business outcomes, and make a positive impact. Solar energy adoption is a great example of this: it helps property owners confidently and profitably invest in solar, benefits tenants as they pay less for energy, and makes the world more sustainable. For example, with Ivy, our clients and tenants were able to avoid 40+ million pounds of CO2 emissions and generate more than $5 million in profit. I’ll continue to contribute my design expertise to ensure these numbers grow.
Michael Cherkashin’s work on the Ivy Energy website highlights how thoughtful design can turn complex ideas into something approachable and effective. Recognized by top international awards, including CSS Design Awards, Awwwards, CSS Winner, and Orpetron, his work demonstrates how companies can reimagine their web experience not just for aesthetics but to drive deeper engagement and real-world impact.
