I recently signed up for the Fauxfolio Challenge with Jess Levitz (you may know her from her June Letters blog, or Freelance Wisdom, or Creative Lady Collective)!

I always have an ever-growing list of fun personal project ideas, and unfortunately they tend to slide to the bottom of the list. But they’re really so important for finding your style as a designer, and attracting the kind of clients you want to work with. So the Fauxfolio challenge was the lil nudge I needed to finally move some personal projects forward.

I created a brand & web design for Figment, a nomadic tiny house shop with curated ethical clothing & statement jewelry. I wanted to create a surreal, modern fairy tale feeling. I’ve also been really inspired lately by embroidery & linocut prints.

I was inspired by Russian fairy tales (especially Baba Yaga’s chicken-footed hut), and by an old article I read on “secret” Japanese boutiques disguised as cafes. I mean, I LOVE THAT. Is it good business to be a secret? I don’t know. But what a delight to discover something you didn’t know existed, right?

This was such a joy to create, and I plan to make more space for personal projects going forward! This challenge also helped me get a better sense of my own style (after several years of corporate-flavored UI/dev work), and rekindled my interest in taking on branding projects.

And maybe I should buy a tiny shop now? 🤔