Tara Shakti — Brand Mascot & Visual System
Tara Shakti designs retro-inspired ski suits for women, grounded in a philosophy of empowerment, confidence, and community. The brand takes its name from Tara, a revered female Buddha in Tibetan Buddhism symbolizing compassion, wisdom, and feminine strength, combined with Shakti, meaning power or energy — together reflecting the idea of “starpower,” the radiant strength within each person.
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The founder wanted a mascot that could embody this spirit: bold, confident, and unmistakably female, while carrying the same 1970s energy as the suits themselves. She envisioned a zebra as that character: an idea that aligned naturally with the company’s identity as a “zebra company,” a values-driven brand built for sustainability rather than hyper-growth.
Design Approach
I began with a wide-ranging concept exploration — developing multiple character directions to help define tone, personality, and visual boundaries. This early “shotgun” approach gave the client a clear way to respond emotionally to the work, shaping the mascot through dialogue rather than assumption.
From Character to System
Once a direction was chosen, the mascot evolved from a single illustration into a flexible brand system — designed to scale across apparel, print, social, and physical products while remaining visually coherent and emotionally consistent.
Mascot design applied across sweatshirts, stickers, and branded materials.
A custom coloring book placing the mascot in everyday contexts — broadening the brand narrative beyond downhill skiing.
Why This Mattered
For Tara Shakti, the mascot became more than a visual element — it became a symbol of empowerment and belonging, reflecting the brand’s belief that when people feel confident and seen, their “starpower” shines.
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For me, this project reflects how I approach brand design: creating visual systems that carry values, not just aesthetics, across every touchpoint.
Boundary Bay
Merchandise & Brand Illustration
Boundary Bay Brewing Company has been a fixture in Bellingham and the greater Puget Sound region for decades. I designed a merchandise and packaging illustration for the brewery that went on to be used continuously for over 25 years — appearing on sweatshirts, printed materials, and later on cans and bottles throughout the region.
Merchandise design — apparel worn across the Puget Sound region
Why This Mattered
The Work
The goal was to create a mark that felt timeless rather than trendy — something that could live comfortably on apparel, packaging, and in the physical environment of the brewpub.
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The illustration drew on classic maritime and Pacific Northwest imagery, giving the brand a visual anchor that felt rooted in place and tradition.
The Impact
Long after the original design was created, it remained in active use — on merchandise worn well beyond Bellingham and on packaging distributed across the Puget Sound. Even after the brewpub closed, the artwork continues to live on through the brewery’s cans and bottles, a rare kind of longevity in brand design.
For me, this project represents the power of durable design — work that isn’t built for a campaign cycle, but for sustained relevance. It’s a reminder that strong brand illustration can become part of a community’s visual memory, not just a moment in time.
Nue — Apparel Illustration & Visual Voice
Nue is a Seattle restaurant built around street food from around the world — an eclectic mix of flavors, cultures, and visual influences. The space itself reflects that philosophy, with decor pulled from many places and eras, arranged in dense, crate-like displays that feel collected rather than curated.
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The owner wanted apparel designs that matched that spirit: something distinctive, unexpected, and impossible to ignore.
The Challenge
Rather than designing a single logo treatment, the goal was to create a set of illustrations that could act as cultural artifacts in their own right — pieces that felt worldly, playful, and a little strange, just like the restaurant experience itself.
The Work
I developed three original t-shirt designs that embraced bold line work, surreal imagery, and narrative detail. Each piece stands on its own, but together they form a loose visual language that mirrors Nue’s identity: curious, eclectic, and joyfully unorthodox.
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One of the designs was later adapted for gift cards, extending the artwork beyond apparel and into the customer experience.
Celebrating eclectic influences and playful storytelling
Bold narrative imagery inspired by global street food culture
Why This Mattered
For a restaurant like Nue, brand isn’t just signage — it’s atmosphere, memory, and conversation. These designs gave the business a way to carry its personality beyond the dining room, turning merchandise into another expression of the experience itself.
Bloom
Brand Identity & Visual System
Bloom was conceived as a meditation experience that felt fundamentally different from traditional wellness products — visually, emotionally, and culturally. From the beginning, my role extended beyond interface design into defining the brand language itself: how Bloom would look, feel, and communicate its purpose across VR, mobile, and marketing.
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The goal was clear: create a visual identity that felt optimistic, accessible, and modern, while still respecting meditation’s depth and history — without leaning on tired or exclusionary tropes.
Brand Strategy
Many people carry preconceived notions about meditation — seeing it as intimidating, mystical, or not “for them.” Bloom’s identity was intentionally designed to counter that.
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Rather than centering on solemnity or tradition, the brand emphasizes warmth, clarity, and emotional ease, presenting meditation as something welcoming and human rather than esoteric.
Logo & Symbolism
The Bloom logo represents personal growth and emotional progress, drawing from the app’s central object-focus meditation mechanic while offering a subtle nod to the lotus, an icon of meditation, without becoming derivative.
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Usage guidelines emphasize breathing room and visual calm, with generous spacing and relaxed proportions designed to reinforce the brand’s tone rather than compete for attention.
Color & Form
The visual system is built on soft geometry: ovals, circles, and rounded rectangles, paired with bright, optimistic color fields that can overlap transparently. These elements support a sense of openness and approachability, avoiding the heavy visual language often associated with wellness brands.
Typography
Quicksand anchors the interface and titles, chosen for its friendliness and legibility, while Segoe supports longer-form content. Together, they strike a balance between warmth and clarity — reinforcing Bloom’s goal of making meditation feel accessible rather than instructional.
Extending the Brand into Space
Bloom’s identity doesn’t stop at flat design. The same principles carry into its 3D environments, which live between fantasy and reality — idealized spaces designed to feel calm and emotionally safe rather than geographically specific.
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These worlds act as visual metaphors for the brand itself: grounded enough to feel real, aspirational enough to feel restorative.
Why This Mattered
Bloom’s success as a product is inseparable from its identity. By defining the brand alongside the experience itself, the visual system became more than decoration — it became a framework for trust.
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For users, that meant a meditation product that felt welcoming rather than intimidating.
For the company, it meant a scalable identity that could live consistently across VR, mobile, and future platforms.
For me, it represents how I approach brand design: not as surface treatment, but as experience architecture — where tone, form, and feeling are as critical as function.