Katalyst Design Emporium

Working through the full identity for Nightshade & Nectar is really forcing me to look at design differently. I'm used to approaching projects by focusing on how something looks first. This assignment forced me to slow down and build an environment before the visuals. The biggest thing I learned is that design decisions have to be grounded in strategy. The name, the logo, the icons, the website layout, even the business card, all had to connect back to the experience I originally described. If something looked cool but didn’t support the tearoom ritual, the Asian–Spanish tapas fusion, or the celestial candlelit atmosphere, it didn’t belong.  I also learned how important restraint is. For me, it's too easy to lean too heavily into “magical” or “celestial” aesthetics and let things become decorative. I had to constantly ask myself whether something felt immersive or just themed.  Another big takeaway was understanding how a brand system works as a whole. The logo had to func...

My intention with this assignment is to carry the atmosphere of   Nightshade & Nectar into a professional format while maintaining the restaurant's romantic tone.  The wisteria along the top of the business card is a direct nod to the wisteria climbing around the entrance of the restaurant. It connects the card to the physical space and strengthens the identity in a subtle but intentional way.  The soft-textured background reinforces the tea room influence. The main typeface for “Nightshade & Nectar” has old-world qualities that hint at the magical element while remaining clear and legible. The contact information uses a more restrained typeface to create hierarchy and structure. The logo is positioned to the right to balance the layout. The purple and gold palette reinforces the celestial and alchemical tone while keeping the overall look professional.  I maintained the same design concept when working on the stationery to keep everything cohesive and memora...

The “Build It With 3 Rules” Exercise Time: 3–5 minutes Materials: None (paper optional) Steps: Pick something to design ( a chair, an app, a café, a jacket, a poster). Give yourself exactly 3 random rules.  Make them slightly restrictive. Examples: It can only use one color. It must fold. It can’t use straight lines. It has to fit in your pocket. It must make a sound. Design within those rules.  Let the restrictions lead. Write 2–3 sentences describing what you created. Here are my results: Thing: Mug Rules: It can’t have a handle It must change color It has to stack with others Result: A handle-free mug with a double-walled design so it doesn’t burn your hands. The exterior glaze shifts color based on the temperature of the drink, and the base is slightly indented so multiple mugs can stack neatly together. It’s simple, space-saving, and interactive. What I learned:  This exercise reminded me that I actually work better with limits. When I gave myself random rules for th...

Our final assignment for week 1 is to make the logo "usable, flexible, and reliable". Here's our prompt: "Your final logo must be able to survive real-world conditions—menus, websites, social media, signage, and packaging—without falling apart visually or conceptually. You must deliver your final logo in all of the following formats: Line drawing version Black and white version Four-color version Reversed (knockout) version All versions must be clean, aligned, and visually consistent. Your final logo must clearly demonstrate: strong relationship to the restaurant name alignment with the dining experience and emotional tone compatibility with your typographic voice simplicity and clarity at small sizes legibility on light and dark backgrounds Before submitting, your logo must answer these questions: Does this logo still work if the color is removed? Does it still feel appropriate for the target audience? Does it avoid literal or stereotypical cultural symbols? Does it...

This week, with the restaurant assignment, felt way more technical than I anticipated...in a good way. I thought that because I have a small business, this would be an easy week for me. I was very wrong.  I spent a lot more time thinking about hierarchy, spacing, and structure, and how these things meshed with the visuals. Things like how the logo scales, how type behaves in different layouts, and how much negative space is actually needed started to matter more. It made me realize how much polish lives in the tiny details. I paid closer attention to consistency across applications, like how the branding would translate from logo to menu to social graphics. I’m getting better at slowing down and building things with intention instead of just reacting visually. The small technical decisions are what make everything feel cohesive and professional instead of just “done.” On top of that, coming up with the restaurant name took much more time than I thought it would. It wasn’t just abou...

The “10-Minute Future” Exercise Time: 3–5 minutes Materials: None (notes app optional) Steps: Pick something ordinary in your life  (Your desk, your phone, your commute, your outfit, your morning routine) Imagine it 10 years in the future.  Not sci-fi extreme. Just slightly evolved. Write 5 changes that feel believable but interesting.  Keep them small but meaningful. Choose one change and describe it in 2–3 sentences. Here are my results: Thing: Morning routine 10 years later changes: Mirror gives subtle wellness feedback Coffee adjusts caffeine level automatically Closet suggests outfits based on weather + calendar Windows tint based on mood lighting Phone doesn’t show notifications for the first 30 minutes  Chosen change & description: In ten years, my mirror doesn’t just show my reflection, it reads small signals like skin tone, posture, and facial tension. Instead of overwhelming stats, it gives simple, human feedback like “You look tired...maybe hydrate?” o...

Now on to designing a visual form to represent our restaurant!  Here's our prompt: "You have defined the experience, strategy, voice, behavior, and name of your restaurant.  Now you begin translating meaning into visual form.  This assignment is about exploration, not perfection.  Professional designers do not start with one idea and polish it.  They search.  Your goal is to explore multiple visual concepts for your brand before committing to a final direction. You must produce: A minimum of 20 logo thumbnails Three refined logo concepts (comps) Your thumbnails may be hand-sketched or digitally sketched. They must show: different symbolic ideas different structural approaches different uses of letterform and shape Do not submit variations of the same idea." Here are my 20 thumbnails: I liked the idea of drawing a logo/symbol that would represent the business, which I could add Nightshade & Nectar to later if I chose one of the symbols without words. Sin...

We've come to the part of our assignment where we get to name our masterpiece! I don't know about you, but naming things has always been a struggle for me...be that pets or businesses! However, we did some exercises in class that made this a lot easier (word association). I started off making the list myself and then asked ChatGPT for some assistance. I also asked ChatGPT to organize the names I used to make it easier to read!  Our prompt was: "For this assignment, you will generate and evaluate restaurant names that authentically reflect the dining experience you have designed. You will then select one final name and build a concept direction that will guide your logo design, color exploration, and visual system in the next assignment.  Your goal is not to find a clever or trendy name.  Your goal is to find a name that belongs to this experience.  You must complete the following: Generate at least 50 restaurant name ideas Select your top five Choose one final name W...

Moving forward in our brand development, we come to Brand Behavior -  the set of consistent actions and interactions that express a brand’s identity in real life, shaping how guests experience its values, tone, and purpose beyond visuals or design. Our prompt is:  "For this assignment, you will define the behavioral standards that make your brand believable and consistent. These behaviors must directly support your positioning, values, and dining experience from the previous assignments.  This is not a customer service checklist.  This is a brand expression exercise." Brand Behavior and Guest Experience Standards 1. Welcoming guests into the ritual Guests are greeted warmly and personally, then gently introduced to how the experience unfolds. Staff explain the shared plates, tiered presentation, and tea elements in a conversational way that feels inviting rather than instructional, helping guests settle into the rhythm of the space. 2. Speaking about food with care a...

If you've read my previous blogs, you know that typography is the bane of my existence . I understand the importance, and I absolutely love seeing beautiful, creative typefaces...but having to choose and pair different typefaces together...ugh. But we persist, and I think I'm starting to make some progress here! Here's our assignment prompt: "For this assignment, you will explore how different typographic directions communicate tone, personality, and cultural influence for your restaurant. You are not choosing 'the final fonts' yet. You are defining possible typographic voices that could authentically support your brand.  Your goal is to test how type can express the same experience you described in your dining narrative.  You must create at least two distinct typographic directions."

Part 2 of our restaurant assignment brings us to the root of the business: our brand positioning, core values, and mission. By creating these early in the design process, we can hone in on the structure of the business as a whole, which helps us to build the foundation for success (and figure out what does/doesn't work later in the design process).  Here's the prompt from our professor: "Now that you have designed the dining experience, your job is to translate that experience into a clear brand strategy. In professional branding, this is where intuition becomes direction. For this assignment, you will define who your restaurant is truly for, what role it plays in their life, what it stands for, and why it exists. These decisions will guide your naming, typography, logo concepts, color choices, and all future design work. This is not marketing copy. This is internal brand logic. Your answers must be realistic, specific, and consistent with the dining experience you created...

We're starting off this class with a detailed assignment containing multiple parts. Part 1 is creating a fictional fusion restaurant, combining bold flavors in a cohesive manner. I've chosen Spanish tapas-style cuisine combined with Asian influence, in an English tea room setting (with some slight influence from this as well). Growing up, my mother, sister, and I used to go to a local tea room for afternoon tea. We still do this whenever possible, so when I saw the details of this assignment, I immediately thought of those experiences and tried to deduce what it was that made tea rooms so enjoyable to us. It's the shared experience, trying different seasonal offerings, conversing about what we liked and didn't like...which led me to think about how Spanish tapas create a similar environment. I tend to gravitate to Asian flavors, and wondered if these cultures could be combined to create a unique pairing. Here is the prompt provided to us for this assignment: "For ...

For our final project, we were asked to create an illustrated self-portrait, and let me tell you...this was one of the more challenging projects thus far. I thought I had a pretty solid understanding of the gradient mesh tool, and this project humbled me with a quickness. That being said, I actually really enjoyed this project. While it's not perfect, I definitely learned a lot. One of my big takeaways is that you can't use gradient mesh on objects that have too many anchor points (my hair had a lot of anchor points). I used the freeform gradient for my hair color because I thought it was the best representation. I had a lot of difficulty with finding the right skin tone, too, as I'm pretty pale, but the closest colors kept coming out gray. My favorite part of the project is the way the gradient mesh on my t-shirt, I feel like I was able to get some pretty good movement in the fabric. 

This week, I spent a lot of time working with the gradient mesh tool, which is something I still find very intimidating. I wouldn’t say I’m confident with it yet, but I’m starting to understand how it actually works. The more I use it, the less scary it feels, even if it still fights me most of the time. Every time I think I'm getting the hang of it, it reminds me that I still have a lot to learn. The hardest part was using gradient mesh to make an illustrated self-portrait. I was getting VERY comfortable using the tool on banners to show movement, but faces are brutal. Every tiny color shift or misplaced point showed immediately. There were a lot of moments where it felt wrong, and I wasn’t sure how to fix it, but slowing down helped. I had to pay more attention to light, shadow, and subtle color changes. I’m still not fully comfortable with gradient mesh, but this week made it feel a little less daunting. We've learned so much over this month, and I'm really looking forwa...

The “Title First” Exercise Time: 3 minutes Materials: Paper or notes app (optional) Steps: Write down 5–10 imaginary titles. They can sound like books, artworks, songs, posters, or exhibitions.  Don’t explain them yet. Just titles. Pick one title that feels intriguing. Give it meaning.  In 2–3 sentences, describe what this thing actually is (a story, product, artwork, concept, etc.). My sentences: “How to Miss a Train on Purpose” “A Manual for Almost Decisions” “Things I Learned From Standing Still” "The Shape of Waiting" "Notes I Never Sent" My example: Title: “A Manual for Almost Decisions” Meaning:   An illustrated book that documents moments where you almost did something (almost quit, almost spoke up, almost left), and what those moments reveal about hesitation and choice. What I learned:   Starting with a title instead of an idea flipped my normal creative process. Instead of searching for the body concept first, the title's language itself became the spar...