When I started working with Nelson Mazda of Middle Tennessee, they wanted a redesign of their logo and a brand guide to assist with the development of marketing materials going forward. The logo design was restricted to a very specific request which created a challenge at the very beginning but not an insurmountable obstacle. Because Mazda aims to utilize designs that imply being in motion, I designed the ends of the stems of the "N" to follow the curve of the circle to feel more dynamic, and I took advantage of the bold negative space on the outside by making it solid to offer an easy focal point in the middle. 

After rebranding and establishing a brand guide, I designed a series of email marketing images, social media ads, a whole lot of print marketing materials, and was tasked with designing a couple portions of their website because they "desperately needed an update." Besides designing a personal portfolio in the past, this was my first major website design project. I had read up on all the UI trends and standards before starting. Originally, I thought it wouldn't be so bad because they said they didn't need to do any user research or testing, and it would just be a quick update. I studied other competitors' sites, asked the Business Development Director, Marketing team, and Managerial staff their opinions on iconography, flow of the site, and usability, and we came up with what we all thought was a strong solution. I still think it's a good site, but a lesson I learned along the way was the necessity of user research and testing. I think we could have made a much better site to fit their needs had we taken that into account.

Overall, working with Nelson Mazda provided me with a lot of freelance work and great experience to take into future jobs. I learned a lot along the way and was able to provide a local auto dealer with some updated design standards, marketing design, and as well as a new vehicle display page and search page for their website.