Welcome to
Grove
Grove was my senior capstone project for my Communication Design major at Miami University. This project spans both comprehensive branding and digital product design, bridging the gap between identity systems and interface design. Over the course of the semester, I developed a complete set of brand guidelines, physical apparel prototypes, an interactive website and mobile app, an animated promotional video, and exhibition materials.
objective
Build a highly realistic, multi-touchpoint brand for our exhibition, combining physical products and digital platforms to create an immersive brand experience.
strategy
Establish the core visual and verbal identity through brand guidelines first, ensuring a consistent foundation before scaling production across digital interfaces and physical manufacturing.
outcome
Successfully launched Grove at the exhibition, presenting a functional ecosystem of digital prototypes and physical apparel that directly challenged industry norms.
The biggest pivot happened during the naming phase. The project originally started under the working title GoodShit, aiming for an aggressive, disruptive stance in the fitness market. Iterating on this concept with peers and mentors revealed that the name actually worked against the welcoming, community-focused goals of the brand. I renamed the project Grove to better reflect a collective community of lifters and a commitment to sustainable, eco-friendly materials.
The Messaging Framework was foundation for the entire verbal identity of Grove. Here you can see the key messages the Grove aimed at delivering as well as our main truth.
Finalized logomark with secondary versions. You can see the sketches of the logo being drawn earlier. In the end I used a modified version of RL Aqva Black, softening the letter forms for a more organic look.
Logomark rules and visual mockups.
The graphics slide, one of the most important aspects of our brand. Here I showed mockups of graphics I made to help give designers the feeling we want to convey.
The visual system evolved alongside the core strategy. Early concepts relied heavily on standard athletic typography, but these felt corporate and missed the brand’s humor. Because I shifted Grove’s messaging to a confident and lighthearted voice, I changed the visual direction to use bold lines, saturated colors, and custom satirical illustrations of animals lifting weights. I used Illustrator to iterate on the logo marks and typography.
For the motion assets, I brought the custom illustrations into After Effects, animating them in a retro, playful style for the promotional video to cement the brand’s personality.
The rollout of Grove required a parallel production track for physical and digital deliverables. On the product side, I built comprehensive wireframes and high-fidelity prototypes for a desktop website and a mobile app in Figma. The digital interfaces allow users to browse products, filter by color, select sizes, and experience the app interface.
Physically, I manufactured a prototype line consisting of a tank top and sweatpants, using heat-transfer vinyl to apply the custom graphics. I also produced custom stickers and a walkthrough video to demonstrate the functionality of the app and website interfaces side by side.
Screenshot of Product Screen for App.
Screenshot for Product screen for web.
Picture of the software used in printing on physical products.
WIP picture of GYM RAT sweatpants.
Final sweatpants and tanktop.
To launch the brand, I built a promotional video that serves as Grove’s main visual hook. I chose a retro style with a distinct jitter effect to deliberately contrast with the ultra-polished look common in fitness advertising. The video relies on quick, rhythmic cuts that showcase people wearing the physical clothing line alongside the animated animal graphics. This approach allowed me to clearly communicate the brand’s personality, showing how the playful visual identity directly translates into a real-world product line.
a lifters dream to a lifters reality
Grove debuted on May 1st, 2026, at our senior exhibition, Reflections, in the Over-the-Rhine district of Cincinnati. The opening night drew a large crowd of designers, artists, alumni, family and friends. I even had the honor of giving one of the introductory speeches for the event. Seeing people interact with the physical apparel and click through the digital mockups proved that the silly, whimsical tone actually resonated with lifters. Looking back, the project showed me so much not only about product design and branding, but also about keeping in touch with what made me a designer.