For the final project, you are to create a fictitious e-commerce brand that either provides a product, or a catalog of products. You will need to create a unique identity for your brand, that gives an impression of the brand to the customers even before the engage with the brand itself. Then proceed to create brand mock-ups and front-end application mock-ups for some device to convincingly sell your product to your consumers. You are also required to create a branding guide for any other potential designers working for your brand.
I paid a lot of attention to creating visual concepts, adhering to associative and logical structure. As depicted in the chart, I build a structure of associations to the name of the brand “Beleaf” (a pun for believe). This was done based on my own chain of inputs and associations, and those of my peers that I asked casually for the most raw form of associative theory inputs.
At this stage of concept visualisation and mood setting, I started gathering images, writing out the brand name and testing out different looks that I thought resonated with the purpose and the emotion of the brand.
After planning out and wire-framing he e-commerce platform for Beleaf, I started making visual renders and mockups of the platform to see it in context and determine if it fits the brand.
I wanted to experiment with textile design and apparel line production. With Beleaf, I had the perfect opportunity to come up with an apparel line that complimented the brand.
As I look back at my design process, I’ve had some key takeaways while working on this exercise: renders and making them fit the idea, purpose and feel of the brand:
Using data from user research to prioritise needs and identify pain points makes the process of visual design a whole lot simplified.
It’s extremely important to strike a balance between research and actual visual design. Both are equally important when you’re designing for a user.
It’s essential to valid assumptions. The problems you think users might have are not always what they truly experience.
