Lifo

Brand identity design for social commerce platform

Context

Lifo needed a distinct brand identity and visual system to clarify its position in the social commerce landscape and strengthen its connection with influencer and creator communities. The platform’s branding lacked cohesion and a clear strategic voice, making it difficult to differentiate from competitors and communicate its value proposition to creators and partners.

Outcome

The refreshed brand identity established a cohesive visual language, tone of voice, and strategic narrative that elevated Lifo’s market presence and supported deeper engagement with influencers and creators. This work played a key role in reinforcing brand confidence and contributed to securing a $2M Series C investment, enabling the company to expand partnerships and platform capabilities.

Lifo lacked a cohesive brand identity and visual system to clearly communicate its value to creators and partners. Without a unified brand voice and design language, the platform struggled to differentiate itself, build trust, and consistently position itself as a long-term partner within the creator commerce ecosystem.

Problem Statement

Lead Brand Strategist & Art Director — defined brand strategy, visual identity system, and messaging frameworks.

Role

Cross-functional collaboration with executive leadership (CEO, COO), Product Management, and copy partners.

Team

Project Duration

2 months (strategy through execution)

Research Goals

To establish a clear, differentiated brand foundation for Lifo, we conducted stakeholder interviews, creator interviews, and competitive analysis to inform positioning, voice, and visual direction.

The research focused on:

Defining Lifo’s position within the creator commerce and influencer marketing landscape
Understanding what creators value in partnership-based platforms (e.g. trust, support, accessibility)
Identifying unmet needs, pain points, and emotional drivers when working with existing influencer platforms
Translating creator needs into brand principles, tone of voice, and visual identity
Ensuring the brand system could scale across product, marketing, and community touchpoints

Research Findings

The research surfaced clear emotional and functional expectations creators had for a platform like Lifo — shaping both the brand voice and visual direction.

Support & Partnership
Participants consistently described Lifo as a potential long-term partner rather than a transactional platform. Creators value responsive, human support and want to feel backed when challenges arise.

Convenience & Accessibility
Ease of use and accessibility strongly influence trust and adoption. Participants highlighted the importance of simple workflows and integrated communication (e.g. in-app messaging tied to email).

Authenticity
Authenticity emerged as a core value for creators. Platforms perceived as overly sales-driven or impersonal struggled to build long-term loyalty.

Voice & Tone
Creators responded best to a brand voice that is informative and professional, balanced with warmth and approachability. Clear guidance matters, but tone must reinforce community and relationship-building.

Visual Identity
Visual consistency and a recognisable aesthetic play a key role in attracting creators. Participants preferred a clean, modern look with a distinct artistic character that feels credible yet friendly.

Opportunity
There is a clear opportunity to position Lifo as a trusted partner — part friend, part guide, part authority — within the creator commerce ecosystem.

Persona

To anchor branding decisions in real creator needs, we synthesized research insights into a representative persona. This persona was used to evaluate brand tone, visual expression, and messaging—ensuring the identity felt supportive, authentic, and aligned with how creators actually think and work.

These insights directly informed early brand exploration—guiding how Lifo could visually and verbally express support, creativity, and credibility.

Core brand principles distilled from research

Cultivate

• Create

• Community

• Cultivate • Create • Community •

Ideate

Early exploration focused on defining a visual language that balanced warmth, credibility, and creative flexibility—tested through mood boards and logo explorations.

Brand Logo

The final logo translates Lifo’s core brand principles—Cultivate, Create, and Community — into a modular floral icon formed by connected petals. Each petal represents individual creators, while the unified form reflects connection, growth, and shared momentum within the ecosystem.

Style Guide

The visual direction was formalized into a comprehensive style guide defining color, typography, iconography, component states, and illustration style.

This system established a consistent visual language across product, marketing, and brand touchpoints, enabling scalable design execution and long-term brand coherence.

Brand System in Practice

The brand system was applied across physical, digital, and product experiences to ensure consistency, recognition, and flexibility across platforms.

UI Design / Web layouts

Creating a visually cohesive and user-friendly website was critical to supporting trust, engagement, and long-term usability. Rather than designing pages in isolation, the focus was on establishing a consistent design language that could scale across layouts, content types, and future iterations.

By grounding all UI decisions in a predefined style guide, each interface element—from layout structure to typography, colour usage, and component behaviour—was designed to follow shared standards. This consistency helps users navigate the experience with confidence, reduces cognitive friction, and reinforces Lifo’s brand presence across touchpoints.

The result is a cohesive, professional interface system that balances clarity, flexibility, and visual polish, while enabling faster design and iteration as the product evolves.

Moving Forward

The rebrand established a clear and scalable foundation for Lifo’s next phase of growth. Following the launch, the company secured $2M in Series C funding in 2021, enabling expansion across its creator partnerships and the continued development of its commerce platform and app.

As the business grew, the brand system proved flexible enough to extend beyond its initial scope—supporting new products, ventures, and touchpoints while maintaining a consistent identity. This foundation positioned Lifo to scale with confidence, adapt to evolving market needs, and continue strengthening its relationship with creators as a long-term commerce partner.