Case Study

Building a Brand from the Ground Up

Overview

Marx Et Al is a Brooklyn-based lighting atelier with design references that span centuries—from Art Deco masters to Medieval illustrations. I drew from these exact same historical references to build their entire brand identity and content system from the ground up. The core of this work was about taking the lead designer’s raw vision and turning it into a fully realized public presence.

Role
Creative Director

Timeline
January 2025 → Present

Objective
To translate an artistic vision into a clean digital ecosystem that feels just as artful and archival as the physical objects—while ensuring branding continuity from an Instagram post down to a physical print asset.

Tools: Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, InDesign, Figma, Edits, Custom CMS
Skills: Project Management, Content Creation, Graphic Design, Photography, Videography, Digital Asset Management

The Challenge

The main challenge was keeping pace with the lead designer’s vision as it evolved in real time. I had to embed myself in his creative process—learning to see the work through his eyes while still contributing my own distinct aesthetic perspective. It was a constant balancing act to ensure the creative direction felt completely authentic to the studio's DNA, serving as a deliberate complement to the products rather than a direct replica.

Because we were building this brand from the ground up, there was no predictable roadmap. We had to navigate and solve complex branding and asset challenges dynamically as they arose on an unpredictable timeline.

Brand Benchmarking

To establish our market position without a physical showroom, I conducted a deep visual audit across competitive fashion and gallery ecosystems:

1

Embodying Louche
Looked to high-end menswear brands like L.E.J, and stóffa, which communicate luxury through an effortless, slightly disheveled loucheness. I shifted this specific fashion mood directly into our lighting presentation.

Social Ecosystems
Analyzed elite design spaces like BDDW, Quarters, and The Future Perfect to study how they’ve used their spaces and social media to build a dedicated community. This social ecosystem is what ultimately gives their physical objects elite market status.

Web Development

Drawing on my background with large-scale digital platforms, I stepped in to guide the website's technical and user experience requirements:

2

Developer Collaboration
Applied my experience managing complex CMS workflows at the New York Philharmonic to collaborate directly with our web developer and advise on interface best practices.

Iterative A/B Testing
Managed a rigorous back-and-forth process involving continuous diagnostic reviews, tight feedback loops, and comparative testing of different site versions.

Design System Refinement
Fine-tuned the core digital design system as we neared launch—tightening up the typography hierarchies, colors, and micro-interactions to ensure the user path felt as premium as the products themselves.

Checkout & Purchase

3

The First-Time Super-Fan (frequently an international traveler for a global director) faces active exclusion at the finish line, blocked by fields that do not accommodate international billing identities.

The Accidental Subscriber hits a technical deadlock. After being forced to add random tickets to bypass the single-ticket gate, the system crashes trying to validate their forced parameters

Post-Purchase & retention

4

The Loyalist suffers severe "appointment anxiety." They intentionally purchased a matinee series, but their digital calendar invite displays an afternoon performance at 1:00 AM, triggering immediate panic over schedule accuracy.

All Converted Patrons experience financial anxiety due to gateway lag, generating duplicate pending charges on bank statements and spiking support tickets before the season even begins.

Impact

I synthesized the friction data and identified the core systemic issue: our platform was engineered for a rigid, domestic transaction model, while our business goals required a flexible, international relationship model.

Strategic Pillars

Respect Human Effort

The system must adapt to the human pace of decision-making rather than deleting user progress.

Design for a Global Audience

Eliminate geographic and structural gatekeeping at checkout to match the international draw of a global music director.

Context-Aware UI

The platform must dynamically serve different pathways based on whether a user is a renewing legacy subscriber or a first-time single-ticket buyer.

This audit serves as a foundational artifact for our upcoming website redesign, translating raw user friction into a concrete, revenue-protecting roadmap. I divided my actionable solutions into two primary high-impact milestones to align our technical and marketing timelines:

Translating Insights Into Strategy

Fall 2026 redesign requirements

  • Eliminate "Ping-Pong" Navigation: Replaces the exhausting back-and-forth loops between the calendar, seat maps, and event pages with an intuitive, consolidated single-page interface.

  • Clarify Curated vs. CYO Architecture: Overhauls product onboarding with a clear visual hierarchy that explicitly differentiates pre-set curated series from custom Choose-Your-Own bundles, eliminating user confusion before the purchase journey begins.

  • Guided Conversion Paths: Uses real-time, educational UI messaging to support first-time users trying to purchase during restricted windows, gracefully redirecting them into available CYO bundle options instead of hitting a dead end.

  • Persistent Carts: Saves complex multi-seat selections to completely eliminate server timeouts and protect user labor.

  • Global Checkout: Re-engineers validation fields to accept international addresses and unlock global revenue.

Single-Ticket On-sale Strategy

  • First-Time Buyer Friction Reduction: Simplifies the entry path for the heavy influx of new single-ticket users drawn by the high-profile launch, embedding clear instructional text and error-prevention barriers from day one.

  • Fuzzy-Match Search Optimization: Dynamically indexes marquee talent (such as Dudamel) so that new users unfamiliar with the exact site structure can instantly discover performance dates via the main search bar.