Overview

Starlight Doughnut Lab was an artisan doughnut startup specializing in seasonal custom orders while operating out of a shared commercial kitchen. I led the visualization of the business, from brand strategy through launch, developing the identity system, copywriting, social media animations, UX flows, and responsive WordPress website.

The goal was to create a digital experience that converted Instagram engagement into customer orders while supporting the realities of an early-stage business without a storefront or traditional ecommerce system.

Challenge

The business had built a strong Instagram following, but lacked a streamlined way for customers to place orders. Operational constraints including limited production capacity, custom orders, and a required two week lead time created friction that needed to be communicated clearly without disrupting the brand experience.

The challenge was balancing customer excitement with operational transparency while maintaining a polished, approachable brand identity.

Process

I conducted stakeholder interviews to identify business priorities, customer behaviors, and operational needs. From there, I mapped the mobile-first user journey from Instagram discovery to conversion and created wireframes in Miro focused on reducing friction and simplifying navigation.

Alongside the UX process, I developed the visual identity, tone of voice, branded copy, and social motion assets. I also collaborated closely with stakeholders to create a modular system that could scale with the business over time.

Solution & Key Deliverables

I designed and developed a responsive WordPress website optimized for Instagram traffic and mobile ordering behavior. The homepage prioritized immediate access to ordering while secondary content highlighted pop-ups, partnerships, and additional brand storytelling.

Since the business was not ready for Shopify or WooCommerce, I created a conversational custom order form that reflected the warmth of the brand while clearly communicating order requirements and lead times.

The project also included social animations, branded visual systems, Google Calendar integration for events, and scalable content areas for future growth.

Results

The final experience created a stronger connection between social engagement and customer conversion while supporting the operational realities of a growing startup. The project established a scalable digital foundation and strengthened consistency across brand, web, and social touchpoints.

The website evolved beyond a simple portfolio presence into a functional communication and conversion tool for the business.

Reflection

This project strengthened my ability to combine creative direction, UX strategy, and stakeholder collaboration within an early-stage business environment. It reinforced the importance of designing systems that balance user expectations, operational constraints, and long-term scalability rather than focusing on aesthetics alone.

Overview

Even small purchases are stories we tell ourselves.

Working on 5 Gum in an agency environment was one of my earliest experiences seeing how storytelling drives consumer packaging. In CPG, packaging has only seconds to create identity, aspiration, and emotional connection — turning an everyday object into a branded experience.

The brand positioned itself as a more elevated, sensory experience than traditional gum products, using atmosphere, texture, and visual language to build identity beyond flavor alone. Working within established brand standards, I developed packaging concepts that extended that storytelling while maintaining cohesion across the larger product system.

This project introduced me to the relationship between strategy, sensory branding, and visual systems, and continues to influence how I approach branding, UX, and design systems today.

Role: Packaging Designer

Environment: Agency Team

Tools: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator

Focus: CPG branding, sensory storytelling, packaging systems, print production

Design Approach

For this flavor extension, the concept centered around carbonation and effervescence.

I created atmospheric smoke effects in Adobe Photoshop and layered fingerprint-inspired bubble forms built in Adobe Illustrator to create movement and tactile energy throughout the packaging system. Metallic inks, embossing, gloss contrasts, and restrained typography reinforced the premium positioning while helping the product stand apart on shelf.

The process emphasized balancing visual experimentation with the realities of production, print execution, and established brand guidelines — an important lesson in agency and CPG design workflows.

What I Learned

More importantly, this project shaped how I think about branding as a complete experience rather than a collection of visuals.

It reinforced how agency teams connect market positioning, storytelling, physical materials, and consumer psychology into a unified system, a mindset that continues to inform my work across branding, UX, and visual design today.

Overview

ConstructConnect underwent a complex merger of four SaaS brands, requiring rapid alignment across visual identity, marketing systems, and customer-facing experiences. The goal was to move from fragmented brand expressions to a unified, scalable system that could support sales, marketing, and experiential needs without constant reinvention.

As Senior Visual Designer, I led the development of a cohesive brand and collateral system while partnering closely with sales, marketing, UX, and external vendors to ensure consistency across every touchpoint.

Challenge

Following multiple acquisitions, ConstructConnect was operating with four distinct SaaS brand identities that lacked cohesion. Marketing output had become fragmented, relying heavily on one-off microsites and ad hoc assets that created inefficiency and diluted brand clarity.

Internally, teams were often misaligned on messaging and visual storytelling, leading to duplicated work and inconsistent execution. These issues were especially visible in high-stakes environments like tradeshows, where the existing booth experience failed to reflect the scale or credibility of the combined organization.

Process

The work began by identifying where inefficiencies and inconsistencies were slowing teams down. I conducted interviews with sales, marketing, and customer success stakeholders to understand how collateral was being used in practice and where gaps were creating friction.

From there, I mapped existing assets and workflows to identify opportunities to replace one-off deliverables with reusable systems. In collaboration with UX and marketing partners, I helped define a shared visual language that could function across multiple products while still allowing flexibility for specific use cases.

I then developed modular design systems for digital, print, and experiential applications, ensuring they could scale across campaigns and teams. To support execution, I worked closely with third-party vendors on video production and environmental design while also introducing more structured workflows that improved cross-functional alignment under tight timelines and budget constraints.

Solution & Key Deliverables

The final solution was a unified brand and marketing system designed to support four previously disconnected SaaS products under one cohesive structure.

This included a modular collateral system that replaced inconsistent microsites and ad hoc marketing materials with reusable templates, significantly improving efficiency across teams. I also helped develop standardized sales and marketing assets that could be quickly adapted without sacrificing consistency.

To strengthen internal alignment, I contributed to the visualization of personas, journey maps, and user flows that helped teams operate from a shared understanding of the customer experience. On the experiential side, I redesigned the company’s 20 ft. x 20 ft. tradeshow booth into a premium, high-impact environment that better reflected the brand’s scale and value. Across these initiatives, I managed vendor relationships and supported budget oversight ranging from $10K to $250K depending on project scope.

Results

The shift to a system-based approach reduced redundant production work by eliminating the need for one-off assets, saving hundreds of hours across sales and marketing teams. The introduction of reusable templates and standardized workflows also significantly improved the speed and consistency of marketing output.

Internally, the shared design frameworks improved alignment between sales, marketing, and customer success, reducing friction in day-to-day execution. Externally, the redesigned tradeshow experience increased foot traffic by 30%, strengthening the company’s presence in a highly competitive industry environment.

Reflection

This project reinforced how impactful design becomes when it is treated as a system rather than a set of deliverables. The most meaningful outcome was not individual assets, but the infrastructure that enabled teams to move faster, communicate more clearly, and stay consistent under pressure.

It also clarified the role design plays in post-merger environments—not just as a visual layer, but as a stabilizing force that translates complexity into clarity and helps multiple organizations operate as one.

As part of a call to rebrand Pepsi's natural cola line, I created a concepts that focused on a bubbly, fun feeling that would still work with Pepsi’s minimal brand identity. I started with a sketch that used contrasting circular elements to convey the enormity of carbonation, and turned it into a design ready for an initial pitch to Pepsi, along with another designer's concept that had the "bubbles" growing more gradually across the packaging. Color variations were also considered.

To help boost seasonal sales, Puffs tissue puts out special boxes at the beginning of each school year for the classroom donation pools. I helped identify trends in children's’ products and then developed packaging based on the most popular trends of the summer.  The turn around was fairly quick, and while I did both the concept and execution of the turquoise “Guitar Hero” box myself, I was working as part of a team who developed some of concepts I had come up with, like the orange “text bubble” box, and allowed me to refine others’ concepts, like the purple “buttons” box. All three shown were chosen for use in stores.

In designing one of my most successful campaigns for Boleros Dance Club, I learned the very important lesson that showing a feeling can take precedence over the facts. After 2 years of working with the comparatively static poses of the actual dances the club taught; I pushed (for the fourth or fifth time) for a ballet type pose because it evoked in me the feelings I had when dancing, even if I've never looked quite so energetic. Paired with a simple call to action, and matter of fact offers; it soon became clear that many other customers had these aspirational feelings as well.