Brand Identity, Website & Digital Product Design
Role
Designer · Strategist ·
Entrepreneur · Content Designer
Timeline
Summer & Fall 2025
12 Weeks
Scope
Brand Identity · Web Design ·
Digital Product · Marketing
A multi-platform brand ecosystem: Postcards From Korea, a study-abroad travel blog that grew into a published digital product, a Gumroad storefront, and a complete brand identity.
Postcards From Korea started as a personal study-abroad blog and grew into a full brand ecosystem: a custom Wix website, a published digital product (the Study Abroad in Korea Survival Kit), a Gumroad storefront, and an integrated marketing launch.
Built from my own semester in Seoul, the brand transforms personal experience into a marketable, design-forward resource for student travelers.
Overview
Objectives
Study-abroad resources are scattered, static, and impersonal. Reddit threads, outdated blog posts, and generic travel guides don't speak to the specific, emotional, aesthetic reality of going to Korea as a student. The opportunity was to build something credible enough to sell and personal enough to trust.
Build a cohesive brand identity personal storytelling and product credibility
Design a dual-format digital product (PDF guide + interactive Google Sheet) that serves different user needs
Create a Gumroad storefront and sales page that converts interest into purchases
Develop an integrated launch strategy connecting blog, email, and social media
Process
Developed the Postcards From Korea visual identity: typography pairing (Thermal headers + Avenir body), soft neutral palette with pink and blue-green accents, and a diary-like, layered layout aesthetic. The brand needed to feel personal and warm, not generic travel-blog corporate.
Brand Identity 
Built the custom Wix website as both a content platform (Postcards and Toolkit blog sections) and a brand statement. Used layered imagery, subtle animation, and real photography from Seoul to create an immersive, story-first experience.
Website DesignResearched Etsy and Gumroad markets to validate the product gap: existing Korea travel guides were static PDFs, overly broad, or lacked authentic student voice.
Then, I designed the Survival Kit as a two-part product: PDF for inspiration and overview, Google Sheet for interactive planning and organization.
Product DevelopmentWith the product designed and packaged, I moved into launch. My focus was to create a simple but cohesive multi-channel funnel built around my existing Postcards from Korea audience which consisted of Study-abroad students (ages 18–25) as well as their caregivers and first-time travelers to Korea
The key messaging was to built from real experience studying in Seoul. In three words: Practical, polished, and personal.
Launch StrategyA complete brand ecosystem: the Postcards From Korea blog (narrative-driven travel content, custom Wix website), the Study Abroad in Korea Survival Kit (dual-format digital product, $5 on Gumroad), and an integrated marketing system connecting blog, email, and social.
The brand transforms lived experience into a trusted, beautifully designed resource and proves that personal creative work can become a real product.
The Solution
Key Takeaways
Personal experience can be a product brief, the most specific, authentic resources are the ones that couldn't have been made by anyone else, and that specificity is a competitive advantage
Brand identity design and product design must be built together, not sequentially, the Survival Kit's credibility depended on the blog's visual foundation
Launching something is the design education that no class can replicate: marketing, sales copy, pricing, and customer response teach you things about your design that prototypes never can