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.

This was an early, transformative experience for me as a designer. Working on a global brand in an agency environment taught me how to tie storytelling to design choices meaningfully.

Even when making small purchases, we tell ourselves a story about why a brand fits our particular lifestyle. 5 gum was created for the masculine market, giving users the ability to start a conversation outside a club or make an offer to a date without the health hazards of smoking. It offers the ritual of unwrapping a gift more than simply having a piece of gum to chew.

Because 5 gum wants its customers to relate its brand with luxury, the visual language I worked with included metallic inks and embossing on dark colors to signify the packaging was as expensive as gum packaging gets. This also kept the design cohesive while introducing new tactile experiences to the consumer as the gum was unwrapped.

This particular flavor introduced effervescent carbonation to the 5 gum line. I worked within the existing branding standards to create a package concept that reflects the unique taste sensations the gum would present. Photoshop was used to create the smoke effect, creating a primal connection to fire and the air we breathe. Illustrator was used to create the “bubbles” that echo fingerprints throughout the design - leaving a trail that promises carbonation as the gum is chewed.

Following some success at developing a mood deck in tandem with an outside agency, I was put in charge of finalizing, codifying and developing the brand as the in-house senior designer. Over the course of a year, I went from participating in the agencies’ branding & messaging exercises to creating the final brand elements and giving feedback on the identity pieces.

The core of the messaging focused on making ConstructConnect’s software products more relatable, with its mission and vision reflecting a desire for customer success. Because customer research favored an “everyman” approach, we eventually landed on “Before You Build” as a relatable slogan for our pre-construction product.

A significant structural re-organization took place, and the outside agency was removed before we had finalized the brand.

I lead the team in defining the remaining elements that communicated the brand. We refined the mission, vision, and purpose statement again, and I created the core visual elements that helped evoke our “tough tech” theme.

Company leadership declined a completely redesigned logo, but the UX team and I collaborated on several proposed changes to the current logo that would result in better readability in different situations. I completed the final proportions for the improved logo and defined guidelines for logo use. I unified our color palette (10 brand colors from the ~40 product colors being referenced) and defined proportional color and texture use. I codified our existing font choices choices and defined typographic styles, differentiating between print and digital instances. A junior designer implemented the traditional identity suite (letterhead, business cards, PowerPoint template etc) with my direction and feedback.

You can view the full brand guide here.

The artwork I created for the brand guide was met with wide approval, and re-used in novel ways. For example, my text treatment of our purpose statement replaced the desktop background for the company’s ~1000 employees. Backgrounds for the brand guide were converted to title PowerPoint slides on a “secret menu” (for power users who promised not to abuse the template).

Moving forward, I helped the training team create materials that communicated the “brand basics” and complete a “brand ambassador” training session. The visual elements of the brand were made strong enough that employees in adjacent communications positions could make materials with minimal direction. I was able to focus on the more complex projects (explainer videos, trade show experiences) and create templates for video presentations and other dev intensive needs.

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.