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Some visuals from the PAUSE Sleep Gummies project.
I just keep falling deeper in love with this project.
The product visual so realistic and appealing.
The network for creativity
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Connect with clients, get discovered, and run your business 100% commission-free
Creatives on Contra have earned over $150M and we are just getting started
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I joined Contra just a week ago and have mostly shared the client branding work I do through Mariya Design.
But I haven't properly introduced the other branch of my practice yet:
Color Systems by Mariya.
It started from something I kept running into in brand and packaging work: a color palette can look beautiful and still be surprisingly difficult to use.
So I began building systems around color instead of collecting combinations.
Today that includes:
/49 Luxury Color Systems
Role-led color systems for branding and packaging.
/365 Cultural Color Palettes
A growing archive of color directions inspired by places, objects, materials and visual culture around the world.
/Color Systems Workbook
A free tool for turning color inspiration into a usable system.
/Color System Sales Kit
A practical tool for designers presenting and selling color direction to clients.
I'll share some of the systems, visual references and thinking behind them here over the next few weeks.
If you're a designer, brand strategist or just slightly obsessed with color, this side of my work is probably for you.
Color Systems by Mariya
mariya.design/color-systems
Hot take: hair growth products don't have to look like medicine to work like it.
Most brands in this category go clinical white and blue, it reads safe, but it also reads like something you'd hide in a drawer, not something you'd want visible on your sink. For Maneup Labs, I went almost fully black instead.
That was a real risk. In a category this saturated with sterile, pharmacy-white packaging, going dark could just as easily read cold, or get lost next to competitors leaning into "clean = trustworthy." But it did the opposite: next to every clinical-looking bottle on the shelf, black reads premium, not medicinal, closer to what you'd expect from a grooming or fragrance brand than a hair-loss aisle.
That's the audience shift the whole rebrand was built around, not the guy who wants to feel like he's medicating something, but the guy who wants a product that looks like it belongs on his counter.
Would a bottle like this make it out of your bathroom cabinet and onto your sink?
Looks amazing! 💙
Created a 20-second AI UGC product ad for premium wireless earbuds, combining realistic creator content, cinematic product shots, lifestyle scenes, and a strong CTA. I handled the creative direction, AI visuals, video generation, and editing for a social-media-ready advertisement.
