Intro to Marketing & Self-Promo (WK3) - Design Blog

This week, I kept catching myself overdesigning. Every time something felt flat, my instinct was to add more. More texture, more words, more drama. But when I stripped things back, the work felt stronger. The mood is already built into the lighting, the color palette, and the typography; I didn't need to keep reinforcing it in obvious ways. Getting the tone right was the hardest part. If it leaned too mystical, it felt performative. If it leaned too polished, it felt corporate. Finding that middle ground where it feels thoughtful and a little whimsical, but still believable as a real restaurant, took a lot of adjusting.

The touchpoints were a challenge for a few reasons. At the time of writing this, I'm still working on the finishing touches for submission, but I know exactly where I'm going with them. The first challenge was that I didn't know what touchpoints actually were. The second was understanding what each category in our assignment actually meant. Once I understood these things, it became a little easier, and the ideas started flowing. I stopped focusing on making something “look on brand” and started leaning into how the brand behaves. The touchpoints only work if they support the pace and feeling of the experience. I began seeing the brand less as a style and more as a system. I learned the importance of everything feeling connected and maintaining the aesthetic flow, and how to keep things within the realm of the brand without feeling gimmicky or costumed.