I grew up with Paint and graduated with Photoshop.
Here are some of my hand-picked graphic design, web design, photography and marketing materials I’ve created over the past decade. These pieces have helped me hone my ability to understand color, balance, contrast, layout and visual hierarchy.
My primary goal for designing this site was to communicate with wholesalers and art directors. I needed a space that displayed my artwork and inspired my clients on how they could be use my artwork. Through this site design, I have been able to build trust and have landed my products in 4 retail stores across the US over the course of one year. https://nilaskies.com
After reaching my first 100 sales on Etsy, I moved my store to my own web platform. This allowed me to keep in touch with my customers through email newsletters. Before launching, I offered sneak peeks on social media and created a sign up page to which I got my first 150 email subscribers. I also offered “exclusive shopping parties” where customers could shop with a discount and then provide their feedback on whether they ran into any issues. This store is my ever-evolving project, in which I’m constantly updating as I launch new products or learn new data about customer shopping habits. https://shop.nilaskies.com
I used this photo to announce the upcoming re-launch of my e-commerce site. The chinoiserie patterns spoke to the interests of my customers, who enjoy the grandmillenial decor style. It really helped me create some buzz on instagram and spread the word which resulted in 150 new sign ups to my email newsletter.
Designing greeting cards comes with many skills - designing with empathy, color psychology, current trends, product differentiation, understanding print production, paper weights, packaging, photography and much more!
I’ve been enjoying creating layouts ever since designing my highschool yearbook. There’s something so satisfying about seeing elements placed in an aesthetic way that draws your eye in. When I was photographing my greeting cards, I wanted to use an interesting flat lay that would showcase several different cards to show the breadth of my work.
Plus, knowing how to design mockups has been an indispensable skill in e-commerce - especially for creating banners and marketing material. I created a fabric mockup using Photoshop’s 3D feature, which is now being phased out. It’s still possible to create an overlay of a pattern on top of a product though, so this look will still be achievable without that feature.
One fun experiment I tried was creating a “pattern of the month” product line. It did well with the help of influencers who spread the word on instagram about my stationery line. This particular line included my favorite artwork that symbolized love, hope and protection. I also loved the way I was able to capture this flat lay - it draws your eye around the photo while the white background gives each individual product the space it needs to stand out.
I also designed a mood board collage to share in one of my email newsletters announcing the launch of this collection. I have a few customers who have been huge fans of this product line! Hearing from my customers helps me understand what type of artwork they are connecting with most.
Designing email newsletter templates was one of my favorite things to do. For this business, it was important to be a source of inspiration for their home decor enthusiasts. I designed collages that used a combination of photography, isolated product imagery, color palettes and other artistic elements to create a magazine-style layout. These emails were used on special occasions since creating each one takes some thought and the right photography. Our regular emails use a cleaner layout similar to the one in the center, where we would be able to insert the daily products of the day in each email that was sent at 10am.
Here’s to highlighting the very beginning of our career journeys! I created these collages as digital brand brochures for Joss & Main. Because their brand model was a daily deals site, there were always new products that needed to be marketed in new, creative ways. It was here that I used my production artist skills to master Photoshop. I loved creating these mockups to inspire customers of color schemes and home decor combinations. This job gave me the practice to create high quality imagery within tight deadlines, and it set the standard for my future work.
This was one of the website redesigns I worked on. The process was extensive and spanned across 9 months. It included competitive analysis, color scheme analysis, wireframing, prototyping and using existing data from previous successful e-commerce website layouts.
To see more of my UX design projects, visit my main UX design portfolio here: https://designbyneela.com/
Get in touch to hear more behind the scenes of my work!
