Case Study

Love is Like a Candle is an artisan candle brand rooted in warmth, storytelling, and intentional gifting. When I took on the creative direction, the brand had a strong product and a loyal niche following — but no unified visual language or strategy to scale that love into a broader audience online.

The Challenge

The specific goal: establish a recognizable brand identity and e-commerce creative direction within 4 months, targeting a 20% lift in online conversion rate within 6 months of launch. Every visual decision needed to feel handcrafted without sacrificing the polish expected of a premium DTC brand.

My Role

As Creative Director, I led the full brand evolution — mood boarding, art direction, photography styling, packaging design, social content strategy, and e-commerce UX decisions. I worked closely with the founder to translate her vision into a system that could scale without losing its soul.

What We Achieved

  • Delivered complete brand refresh — visual identity, packaging, and photography direction — within 16 weeks
  • Increased e-commerce conversion rate from 1.4% → 2.1% within 6 months (50% improvement against a 20% target)
  • Grew Instagram engagement rate from 2.3% → 5.8% over 3 months post-launch
  • Designed 4 seasonal product collections with cohesive unboxing experiences cited in customer reviews
  • Art-directed a product shoot producing 60+ assets used across web, email, and social channels
Process

How We Got There

Discovery

Immersed in the brand story, product line, and customer community to identify the emotional core that would anchor every visual decision going forward.

Brand Direction

Developed mood boards, refined the color palette and typography system, and defined art direction principles that balanced handcrafted warmth with DTC polish.

Visual Identity

Delivered the full identity system — logo suite, packaging design, color standards, and photography styling guide — within 16 weeks.

Photography Direction

Art-directed a product shoot producing 60+ assets covering all SKUs at multiple use-case sizes, from web hero images to 1:1 social crops.

Launch & Adoption

Handed off a complete content template system the founder continues to use for seasonal campaigns, maintaining brand consistency without ongoing design support.

Reflection

Lessons Learned

Brand refresh without brand loss requires deep listening first

The hardest part wasn't designing the new identity — it was understanding what made the original brand feel true to the founder. Getting that right made the visual system believable.

A photography direction guide is worth more than the photos themselves

The styling guide I delivered enabled the founder to maintain visual consistency independently. The 60+ assets would have degraded in value without a system to continue them.

DTC conversion gains come from emotional alignment, not just UX

The 50% conversion lift followed brand credibility improvements, not UX tweaks. Customers bought more once the brand felt coherent enough to trust.