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24 THINGS I LEARNED AT 24 | Brand Designer Edition
Turning 24 felt like a good moment to look back at the lessons that have shaped the way I work, think and run my studio today.
Some came from projects that went exactly as planned. Others came from learning the hard way.
But the biggest shift has been realising that good design is rarely just about making something look good. It’s about clarity, positioning, systems, process and knowing what actually serves the brand behind it.
These 24 lessons have shaped how I approach every project now: with more intention, stronger boundaries and a much bigger focus on building brands that work beyond the moodboard.
A small snapshot of what 24 looks like from behind the studio.
Loved that you share these, very valuable!! 💯
This is excellent advice. Thank you May and a very happy birthday!
Thank you so much! I’m really glad it resonated, and thank you for the birthday wishes 🤍
that is very great, thanks for sharing
Moving past just making things look good to focusing on positioning, systems, and strict boundaries is a massive shift! Happy 24th—these hard-earned insights are what truly elevate a designer into a strategic partner
Thank you! That shift has probably been one of the biggest lessons for me. The design still matters, but understanding the positioning, building a system around it and having a clear process is what makes the work actually hold up beyond just looking good. And thank you for the birthday wishes! 🤍
The consistency point is the one I keep running into. Once the brand rules are settled, every new page or campaign starts with fewer decisions.
Exactly, that’s such a big part of it. Once the system is clear, you’re not reinventing the brand every time something new needs to be made. It gives you a much stronger starting point and keeps everything feeling connected.
Thanks for sharing! ❤️
The line about building brands that work beyond the moodboard is the whole job. Nineteen years in, the lesson I keep relearning is that writing the positioning down before I open the design tool is what keeps every visual choice accountable to the brand instead of my taste. Happy 24th.
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Brand visuals for a SaaS brand I recently worked on.
For this project, I took a premium and minimalist approach, focusing on creating a visual system that feels modern, polished, and intentional without doing too much. The goal was to let the product and message breathe while using strong typography, clean layouts, subtle details, and refined visual elements to communicate trust and sophistication.
I wanted the final direction to feel like a SaaS brand that understands its audience, simple enough to be accessible, but distinctive enough to stand out in a crowded digital space.
The interaction between the visuals and typography is excellent.
When do you know a design actually has enough?
In university, one of my professors kept using the word "suficiencia." There isn't a clean translation for it, but the idea was strict: if a detail adds meaning to the concept, it stays. If you're adding it just because it looks nice, it goes.
I didn't think much of it at the time. Now it's the question I ask before every project ships.
What's the one thing you were taught early on that you still use on every project?
Suficiencia is such a powerful lens for design! Stripping away the fluff until every single element carries real intention is what turns a good layout into an iconic one
𝗜 𝗔𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗘𝗻𝗷𝗼𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺𝘀 𝗡𝗼𝗯𝗼𝗱𝘆 𝗪𝗮𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗧𝗼𝘂𝗰𝗵.
Broken forms.
Strange mobile layouts.
Plugin conflicts.
A website that suddenly stopped working.
A page that looks perfect on one device and terrible on another.
A third-party integration that refuses to cooperate.
These aren't necessarily the glamorous parts of web development.
But they're some of the problems I enjoy solving most.
Because there's usually a moment when everything feels confusing.
Then you start isolating the variables.
Check the code.
Check the browser.
Check the plugin.
Check the console.
Check the settings.
Test again.
And eventually...
You find it.
That moment is addictive.
It's one of the reasons I enjoy development beyond simply designing pages.
I like figuring out why something isn't working.
Then making it work properly.
What is one frustrating technical problem you've spent way too long trying to solve?
Contra's own post editor got me with this once: it swallowed the first keystroke after I clicked into it, and nothing failed loudly. Now I type one word, read the field back, then add the rest.