Most of my work tends to be warmer, more elegant and feminine. So when this client asked for something very rigid, minimal and clean, I knew I was going to have to approach the project differently.
They are architects, and they wanted their structural, precise and highly organised way of thinking to come through in the website.
I have to admit, I was a little scared at the beginning.
It’s always interesting when a project doesn’t immediately feel like “you”. There’s a temptation to bring your own aesthetic into everything you create — but sometimes the real challenge is knowing when not to.
Looking at the final website now, I actually love how consistent it feels with their identity.
And perhaps that’s the real goal of design: not to make everything look like your work, but to create something that feels unmistakably like your client.
Have you ever worked on a project that was completely outside your usual aesthetic? Did you embrace it, or did you find yourself trying to bring it back into your own visual language?
Umami Color & Finishing is an established color-grading studio in LA. Its work and reputation had outgrown its old site, and the studio was ready for one at the level of its work.
I designed and built it around the work itself: every project filterable by type and colorist, and every view with its own link, so the team can send a lead exactly what fits.