Role
UX Designer
Timeline
Jun - Aug 2025
HTML, CSS, Figma, Low/High
Fidelity Prototyping, Marketing
Skills & Tools
Summary / Overview
I collaborated with a small clothing brand centered on faith and travel to design and develop their first set of responsive marketing email templates. The goal was to create a visually cohesive and flexible system of templates that could be reused for different customer touchpoints such as order confirmation, promotions, and announcements.
Purpose
Establish a consistent email communication system that reflected the brand's mission and visual identity
Context / Background
The clothing brand was preparing to launch its first online storefront and wanted to build brand recognition through cohesive email communication. There were no existing templates, so my task was to design a complete email system from scratch that could serve multiple purposes and adapt to the brand’s growing audience.
The brand needed a way to communicate with customers consistently while maintaining a strong visual connection to its identity. Without templates, every email would have to be manually designed, leading to inconsistent layouts and messaging. The challenge was to create a modular set of templates that captured the brand’s tone of faith and travel, while being flexible enough for marketing and transactional use.
Problem Statement
I studied email designs from 10 other clothing brands and several tech-focused companies to understand effective hierarchy, spacing, and engagement strategies. I also used the brand’s existing mood board to guide color, typography, and image selection, ensuring alignment with their desired tone: calm, modern, and meaningful.
Key takeaways from research:
Balance white space and visuals for scannability
Keep typography simple but expressive
Use color and imagery to reflect brand purpose, not just decoration
Research and Inspiration
Design Process
Defining Scenarios
Each of the eight templates addressed a different user situation, including:
Welcome emails for new subscribers
Order confirmations and shipping updates
Product drops and seasonal promotions
Thank-you and loyalty messages
For new customers, I prioritized strong visual hooks and storytelling. For returning customers, the focus was clarity and useful information.
Prototyping and Iteration
I created detailed layouts in Figma, refining hierarchy, spacing, and typography to ensure readability. The co-founders provided feedback on logo placement, verse integration, and tone. After aligning on visuals, I implemented the templates using HTML and CSS, adjusting for cross-client consistency.
Testing
I tested each template across different email clients and devices to confirm responsive performance. Adjustments were made for image scaling, line spacing, and font rendering differences across Gmail, Apple Mail, and Outlook.
Final Design and Outcome
The final system included eight responsive email templates with consistent typography, spacing, and brand elements.
Key design elements:
Warm, travel-inspired imagery and color palette
Modular sections adaptable to different campaigns
Responsive layouts tested on mobile and desktop
Accessible color contrast and alt text for all visuals
The team integrated these templates into their marketing platform and continues to use them for new campaigns and customer communications.
Reflection and Lessons Learned
This project taught me the balance between pixel precision and real-world flexibility. I initially spent too much time perfecting layouts in Figma and realized that email rendering requires adjustments in code regardless.
What I learned:
Coding for email design is far more restrictive than web design and requires careful testing
Compelling design is about guiding attention, not just aesthetics
Simplicity and clarity improve engagement, especially on mobile
I am proud of how the templates turned out and how they continue to serve as the brand’s main communication foundation.