Arteway sells access to how working artists actually think. That's a hard thing to hold onto once you're at 15,000 students across 50-plus countries. The risk with education platforms at that size is that the intimacy gets designed out. Everything gets standardized until it reads like a textbook with better photography. So the identity leans on the work itself. High-contrast type, a frame that behaves like a studio window, and enough restraint to let a canvas stay a canvas. Scale doesn't have to flatten a brand. It just makes the original intention harder to protect.

The intimacy usually dies in the product layer before it dies in the identity. At 15k students you are not writing copy anymore, you are deciding how many people share a cohort, how often the platform speaks to them, and whether the feedback loop runs through a human or a...

Being an independent designer means you're also your own toughest critic – no one else is going to catch it if you don't.

Self-initiated projects give you all the freedom, meaning you can create close-to-perfect work that you think people would love to use. Vela is an app for making doctor appointments and getting insurance guidance with AI assistant. When I started designing it, I wanted it to feel trustworthy and knowledgeable, but also warm, like a friend who explains things without judging you.

Looking back at the initial teal version, I think it landed closer to "doctor's office" than that. Tried a version with less clinical colour, more personality, leaning towards "tech" rather than "health".

Curious what actually reads as more trustworthy to you: A or B?

version B