Nova Donna: Bold, Modern Branding for a Shop That Empowers Creative Professionals

Nova Donna is a passion project I created from the ground up—a digital shop offering ready-made business card templates, resume designs, and stylish merch like branded tote bags. This self-initiated project gave me the opportunity to craft a bold, empowering brand from scratch and experiment with fresh visual storytelling and ecommerce design.

The challenge was to create a brand that felt high-end yet approachable, aimed at young professionals looking to make a statement with their personal branding.

Key goals:

• Build a strong, recognizable brand that evokes confidence and creativity.
• Design a seamless shopping experience optimized for browsing and conversions.
• Develop a cohesive visual system that could scale across physical products and digital templates.

Before designing, I stepped into the mindset of my ideal customer: someone at the intersection of ambition and aesthetics. I considered what they were searching for—confidence, polish, and ease—without needing a custom design process.

Research activities included:

• Market analysis of digital stationery shops and template marketplaces.
• Reviewing customer reviews and feedback on similar platforms (like Etsy and Creative Market).
• User journey mapping to define the path from product discovery to checkout.

Key insights:

• Shoppers wanted bold, contemporary designs that made them feel instantly more “put together.”
• Many design template stores felt too generic or visually noisy—there was a gap for something elevated, curated, and modern.
• Users valued personality and flexibility: they wanted products that felt creative but also highly usable.

Nova Donna’s branding is intentionally sleek and modern—with an unapologetically feminine edge. I designed the brand to evoke a sense of stylish clarity and forward momentum.

Design solutions included:

• A bold sans-serif wordmark paired with elegant accents for contrast.
• A refined, high-contrast color palette—deep neutrals, hints of peach and rose, and editorial-style white space.
• A modern, grid-based layout system for product pages that makes browsing feel like flipping through a beautifully curated portfolio.
• Visual storytelling woven throughout—highlighting both product function and aspirational lifestyle.

• The visual direction reflects the confidence of the Nova Donna customer: modern, self-assured, and professional.
• Grid-based layouts and minimal interface elements ensure the product designs shine.
• The brand feels both fashionable and functional—encouraging customers to invest in themselves.

From early sketching to ecommerce integration, I moved through an agile, iterative process—testing designs and visual systems in real time.

Process highlights:

• Created a moodboard anchored in editorial fashion, Bauhaus simplicity, and modern professional branding.
• Prototyped homepage and product layouts tested for flow and readability.
• Built a responsive site that works equally well for mobile-first shoppers and desktop browsers.

Notable iterations:

• Simplified the product category navigation after early user testing revealed confusion between physical and digital products.
• Adjusted image sizing and cropping to allow products (especially tote bags and templates) to shine without distraction.
• Added styling cues—like hover effects and subtle movement—to bring depth without clutter.

Final Solution

The final Nova Donna experience is clean, curated, and elevated—designed to inspire and empower creative professionals to show up confidently.

Key features:

• A cohesive ecommerce brand system with a polished-yet-fun personality.
• Modern typography and bold colors that reflect strength and creativity.
• Seamless checkout and shopping experience that prioritizes ease and clarity.
• Consistent styling across product photos, mockups, and promotional graphics.

• Successful launch: Nova Donna’s first product drop sold out within days, with strong interest via social media and newsletter engagement.
• Customer resonance: Buyers consistently shared how the brand made them feel "more professional and inspired."
• Expanded offerings: What started as a few templates has grown into a broader product line including tote bags, resume kits, and downloadable guides.

This project reinforced the power of blending emotion with utility in product design—and how a strong brand foundation can make even small-scale offerings feel premium.

Next steps:

• Launch additional template collections (presentation decks, media kits, etc.).
• Explore partnerships with other creative professionals or educators.
• Continue to build out the brand’s content strategy through email, editorial, and styled photography.