Barré Studio — Case Study

The Challenge

A bold identity, an overwhelming experience.

Barré Studio is the creative studio of an art director specialising in artistic direction, production, and casting. Her existing website — built on a template-based platform — captured her personality but buried her work.

Bold patterns, checkerboard backgrounds, and saturated colours were everywhere. What should have been signature touches were instead competing with the portfolio itself. On top of that, the site wasn't fully responsive and the navigation was too basic for the content she wanted to showcase.

The goal: strip back the visual noise, let the projects breathe, and build a structure that could grow with the studio.

Barré Studio original homepage — checkerboard pattern and saturated colours

About page — strong personality, but overwhelming

Contact page — stripes and patterns competing for attention

Project page — basic layout with limited structure

Research & Discovery

Understanding the right balance between personality and clarity.

The client had a clear vision — she knew what she wanted. The UX research focused on a competitive analysis of similar creative studios and the creation of a moodboard to define the new visual direction.

Too much personality

The patterns and colours that defined the brand were overshadowing the actual work. Visitors couldn't focus on what matters most — the projects.

Neutral with a twist

Competitor analysis showed that the best creative portfolios use a clean, neutral base with strategic pops of personality — not the other way around.

Room to grow

The existing site architecture was flat and couldn't accommodate new pages or project categories the studio needed.

Placeholder — moodboard image coming soon

The key insight

The studio's identity didn't need to disappear — it needed to be curated. Instead of patterns everywhere, we would use them as intentional accents that reinforce the brand without distracting from the work.

The redesign direction became clear: a neutral, sophisticated canvas with carefully placed touches of the studio's signature boldness.

Design Process

From chaos to clarity in four steps.

01

Information Architecture

Restructured the sitemap to accommodate new pages — book, individual project pages, and a clearer separation between services and portfolio.

02

Wireframes

Designed low-fidelity wireframes to define layout and content hierarchy. The focus: let the images do the talking.

03

Visual Design

Created a clean design system in Figma — neutral palette with signature colour accents. Every pattern and bold element now has a purpose.

04

Responsive Prototypes

Built high-fidelity prototypes for desktop and mobile, ensuring the experience works beautifully on every screen size.

The Result

A cleaner stage for bolder work.

The redesigned site puts the art director's projects front and centre. A neutral, elegant layout lets each project shine, while carefully placed brand accents keep the studio's personality alive.