For those of you who are new here, welcome to a brief journey through my design and branding experience.

Even though a lot of my portfolio showcases projects related to the music industry – music being one of my biggest passions – my professional experience extends beyond that. The following are a few examples of work I have done that highlight my branding and design skills the best.

While my skills are versatile and vary from project to project, I always maintain a hands-on approach to every task, as the creative process is my favorite part.

Reaching goals and seeing tangible results is my top priority, but the steps I take to discover the best solution, as well as seeing how ideas take shape before my eyes, are by far the most exciting aspects of my work.

(photo courtesy of UnSplash)

The majority of the companies we worked with were from the construction, agriculture, and manufacturing industries. Even though these companies were small sized, having the chance to create for these industries has given me the insight into how to present and communicate different types of technical information in a way that speaks precisely for the people involved into these fields.

For example, before starting to work on a project, I noticed a lot of these businesses only had technical sheets and documents related to the specs of their products. Even though the information provided was minimal, at the end of the project, all the businesses had fully functional brands with

• a clear visual style,
• a distinctive logo used on a variety of situations (from being used on printed documents, to being used on industrial machinery, or work equipment),
• also an eye catching and intuitive website which presented not only their capabilities but also the way the industrial process worked.

It was a great way for me to understand branding principles that are universal to any kind of project – like:

• the personality of a brand
• its position on the market
• the story of the company
• what differentiates them from the rest
• and the impact said brand has.

I also learned how the use of colors and contrast, organizing the information in a way that guides audiences through the story and the discovery of a brand, and coherency, play a vital role in the development of a successful branding journey.

It familiarized me with the use of grids, layouts, space, content hierarchy, content strategy, and typography in my design work – all concepts which are today recognized under the name of user experience.

Later on, being hired at RoBrady in Sarasota Florida helped me understand what role branding plays in the bigger picture of companies big and small. Because RoBrady was primarily an industrial design studio, I had the opportunity to collaborate with product design teams and create visual communications for a variety of medical devices, maritime products, transportation objects, environmental and weather related gadgets, or eco-conscious inventions.

One of the projects that brought a lot of joy to be part of is creating the graphic interface and user experience for the Cleanyst device, which was a home-use detergent making machine. Because in the industrial process of production of detergents there are a lot of factors that impact the environment in a negative way, Cleanyst invented a machine that reduces the water waste and the chemical waste by allowing individuals to create their own detergents in a safe way right from the comfort of their home.

By being present in the process of the creation of this machine from sketches to prototype to functional prototype, I have learned how to tie the physical product, the company story, their mission statement and their promise into a coherent visual style across a multitude of platforms – from icons to digital app interface, to website and product manual.

Another exciting project was the conceptualization of the graphical interface for – what was at the time – Harley Davidson’s first electrical motorcycle. It allowed me to take a bigger visual language and brand style guide and adapt it to a new product that was to maintain its original voice, but adapt to different requirements of a completely new technology.

I used a simplified visual language in terms of graphic elements, but maintained coherence with the bigger brand by using the same brand color, the same “edgy” style, and the same shapes and forms that Harley Davidson already was using in their communication.

The result was a variety of concepts, but overall it challenged me to extrapolate a brand to a new application while still maintaining its traditional voice.