Codifying a viral brand without losing its edge
Translating Urban Sophistication's social-fueled cult energy into a documented identity, an editorial commerce experience, and a marketing engine its founders could finally step away from.
Company
Urban Sophistication
Industry
eCommerce—consumer tech accessories & apparel
Role
Creative Director & Studio Lead Agency-side at Diamond Hook
Services
Web & Experience Design, UX/UI, Visual & Verbal Strategy, Brand Identity System, Digital Art Direction, Interaction & 3D Direction, Content Architecture, Design Operations
Team
Project Manager & Strategist: Dani Jacobson, Designer: Irina Spork, Content Strategist & Copywriter: Alexandra Toto, Developers: Ned Brennan & Usman Pervez
Outcomes at a glance
Unified visual identity across site and brand channels, defining scalable design system for marketing and eCommerce
Launched a custom Shopify experience that married editorial polish with eCommerce essentials
Extended visual design into high-performing campaign assets, driving +28% email revenue and +5% SMS CVR
Introduced design ops models for workflow alignment and delivery efficiency, setting foundation for 6× scope expansion
Context & Brief
An effortlessly cool brand that wasn't translating beyond Instagram
Urban Sophistication's effortless aesthetic lived entirely in its founders' heads—and as the brand scaled, that became the bottleneck.
Challenge
Urban Sophistication’s social voice and cult status outpaced its digital infrastructure. The site couldn’t sustain traffic, scale visuals, or express its emerging brand maturity.
What wasn't working
Effortlessly cool worked on social, but felt flat or generic when applied to email and the website—channels that needed real storytelling, conversion craft, and eCommerce best practice
Elad and Neta's taste was the brand. None of it was documented, which meant every asset still routed back through them
Verbal identity was almost nonexistent. The brand had short, sharp social captions but nothing to support longer-form web copy, brand education emails, or product descriptions
Objective
Translate a effortless social presence into a mature brand system, performance-driven digital strategy, and premium, large-scale Shopify site—without losing its edge.
What we set out to do
Define a uniform visual identity and articulate a succinct, effortless verbal identity — both written down, both teachable
Apply that identity across email and SMS as a strategic, conversion-focused program — not just one-off sends
Design and develop a Shopify site that felt as editorial as their feed while landing the eCommerce essentials (reviews, social proof, accounts, upsells, loyalty)
Contraints
The founders' taste was the source of truth — but they couldn't be the bottleneck for everything. Whatever we built had to eventually run without them
A thin line on voice: persuasive enough to convert, but never salesy or forced. "Too cool" was a brand value, not just a vibe
A small in-house team with growth plans — meant we needed to embed alongside them, not hand off a deck and disappear
Strategy & Approach
Translate founder taste into a system the team could run
Three parallel workstreams—extract the unspoken aesthetic, document the visual system, and build a verbal identity that could carry beyond captions.
Experience framing
Connected social tone with brand architecture to ground every interface in story.
Systemic clarity
Established modular foundations across typography, layout, and interaction to ensure consistency and pace.
Design direction
Defined a minimal yet expressive language that preserves brand personality while improving usability.
Collaboration model
Partnered with founders and creative teams to evolve processes that could scale creative quality.
Solutions & Delivery
Scaling design without losing identity
TL;DR
What we did
Evolved Urban Sophistication’s brand and eCommerce presence
Defined a scalable visual identity for web and marketing
Built a modular web design system bridging social content and product experience
Optimized UX for conversion and visual clarity
What I led
Creative and design direction across brand and digital
Creative-strategic alignment between brand and UX
Cross-team collaboration with founders and development
Visual identity evolution
Defined a restrained yet expressive identity—minimal palette, expanded typographic rhythm, and adaptable graphic system.
UX & structure redesign
Rebuilt information hierarchy for intuitive browsing, improved product discovery, and clearer CTAs.
Component-driven design system
Developed reusable modules for hero imagery, product grids, and editorial features, ensuring visual cohesion and performance.
Art direction & imagery
Extended brand photography style into digital application, emphasizing motion, interaction, and product storytelling.
Collaborative integration
Partnered closely with strategy, content, and engineering to align design intention with performance goals.
Outcomes & Impact
An eCommerce experience built for momentum and longevity
The new identity and web system gave Urban Sophistication a flexible platform for both cultural expression and commercial clarity.
Consistent design language across digital and brand surfaces
Improved usability and conversion performance
Increased efficiency in campaign and product rollout
Digital marketing success: >5% SMS, 57x SMS ROI, +28% email revenue
Elad Yam
Director of Creative
The team really understood our vision and brought it to life.
Looking forward
What I'd work on next
Deeper account experience (wishlists, fit guidance, care).
Deepening editorial storytelling across campaigns
Integrating richer data-driven content personalization