My first real brand identity project came from a classmate who needed a website for her pottery business. It sounded simple. It was not.
Where the process actually starts
Before touching any design tool, I spent two hours just asking her questions. Who buys handmade pottery? What feeling should the site give off? What she described and what she had been posting on social media were completely different things. That gap is where most student projects fall apart.
What went well
- Defining a colour palette early saved hours of back-and-forth later
- Using a typography pairing guide from Google Fonts kept the site looking consistent without a huge budget
- Referencing three competitor sites helped her see what she did and did not want
What did not go as planned
- The logo I designed in Figma looked great on screen but felt disconnected from the site overall — I had not considered how it would scale across pages
- I skipped a proper brand brief document, which meant her feedback kept shifting
- Version control for design files was a mess without a naming system
The brand identity is not just the logo. It is every decision about type, colour, spacing, and tone stacked together.
Getting even one of those wrong creates an inconsistency visitors feel even if they cannot name it. Students often focus on the visual output and skip the strategic foundation that makes it hold together.