Quell Team
01
Disciplines
UX DESIGN
UI DESIGN
Branding
Team
Lead UX Designer
UX/UI Designer
Developer
MY Role & Timeline
UX/UI Designer
12 Weeks
Tools
Figma
Relume
Claude
Maze
DELIVERABLES
Website
Logo
Brand guidelines
INTROduction
Quell approached our team needing a digital presence that matched their high stakes consulting expertise and brand redirection to reflect their breadth of services. Founded by four seasoned political strategists with a combined 30+ years of experience, Quell offers specialised services in political campaigns, crisis management, reputation strategy, and stakeholder navigation.
Despite their impressive client roster and deep political expertise, Quell had no cohesive online identity that demonstrated the breadth of skill in their team.
Establish credibility with political candidates, private companies navigating political landscapes, and organisations in crisis
Clearly communicate their unique value: connection to key audiences, transformative action, and boutique personalised service
Drive one primary action: booking consultations
Showcase their international reach (Miami, Bogotá, Madrid, Quito)
Highlight their founding team's unmatched experience
Create a sense of trust and urgency (clients often come to them in crisis)
Finalised visual direction seen in hero screens are designed by Ryan Lanyon at Nexus Digital Studio. I worked alongside Ryan (the lead designer) to optimise these layouts for user flow, ensuring the high-fidelity aesthetic translated into a functional and scalable design system.
We had 12 weeks to deliver a brand readjustment and a fully functional conversion-optimised website from concept to launch.
The client had no existing testimonials, case studies, or awards at launch. Our design needed to build trust through storytelling, team credibility, and strategic positioning rather than social proof.
Desktop and mobile responsive design
Clear conversion paths to a consultation booking
Service breakdown without overwhelming visitors
Integration with contact/booking systems
Fast, professional aesthetic grounded in creative flare that took inspiration from firms like McKinsey and PR Consulting
E-commerce functionality
Client portal/dashboard
Multi-language site (initial launch in English & Spanish only)
I led the end-to-end research and discovery phase for Quell, establishing the foundational branding, information architecture, and strategic copy collaboration. While the final hero screens represent the lead designer’s visual direction, I was responsible for the underlying UX/UI ideation and systems logic that ensured the platform was as functional as it was aesthetically refined.
I solely developed the update to Quell's visual identity to reposition themselves as a team based consulting firm while retaining their bold, creative, and minimalist personality.
Quell already had an established brand identity. The purpose of this exercise was to make a simple and cohesive brand update that retained the current visual language. From Quell, came Quell Team. A collective team of experts providing boutique quality consulting services with a brand identity that reflected this joint prowess.
To extrapolate further on the brand redirection, I created the company’s new brand guidelines. The guidelines would govern key visual language applications such as logo placement, colour systems, and typographical hierarchy to correctly maintain the brand image.
We drew inspiration from high-end consulting firms like McKinsey while infusing a distinctly creative edge. The bold, minimalist aesthetic uses strong typography, confident imagery, and a restrained yet powerful palette of white and strategic accent colours. Every design choice reinforces Quell's promise: sophisticated strategists who feel simultaneously presidential and personal.
Through collaboration with the lead designer, I developed a streamlined sitemap organised into three clear sections: About Us, Services, and Contact Us. This intuitive structure reduced friction for new users, guiding them efficiently toward booking a consultation. In addition, founder profiles and credentials were strategically organised to maximise credibility and establish immediate trust with visitors.
AI Workflow Integration
I integrated Relume AI into our workflow to rapidly generate wireframe structures and content layouts. This significantly accelerated our ideation process and allowed me to shift my focus from manual layout execution to high-level strategic challenges, such as refining the information architecture and optimising user conversion paths.
I worked with the lead designer to refine the brand messaging that balanced Quell's formal expertise with their personalised approach. This included specifically articulating a key value proposition described by the client as "friends who have your back." I translated client questionnaire insights into compelling website copy that ensured tone consistency across all pages and maintained a professional yet approachable voice that positions Quell as both sophisticated strategists and trusted allies.
AI Workflow Integration
We leveraged Claude to help us generate and refine website copy. The AI was used to translate the client questionnaire into compelling messaging that balanced Quell's formal consulting expertise with their personalised, boutique approach. Both an English and Spanish version was used for the differing website translations.
As part of the design process, I was tasked with rapidly developing three distinct home page design directions that explored different visual approaches to balancing Quell's formal consulting credibility with the intended bold, creative brand personality. I was asked to return to basics and design using quick iterative sketching techniques to create a unique aesthetic for Quell.
Key design themes:
Full screen use of colour
Interaction transitions to break up information into digestible pieces
Scroll activated horizontal and vertical interactions that effect colour scheme
Typography as a key element used to add creativity into the design
Structured grid approach to page design
Key design themes:
Minimalist visual design language
Clean and structured Swiss grid inspired aesthetic that communicates structure and professionalism
Purposeful breaking of the visual grid to integrate emphasis
Integrate hover states to reveal information
Key design themes:
Large and eye-catching typography used to drive creative flare
Minimal use of imagery and purposeful use of text
Strong and high contrast colour scheme used to fill the screen
Basic colour pallet to encourage clear communication of information
Simple interactions and transitions
I synthesised the strongest elements from all three design directions into a cohesive visual language and complete homepage iteration that balanced minimalist professionalism with strategic creative interventions. This hybrid approach successfully captured Quell's dual identity as credible political consultants and bold, innovative strategists. The design was used to further inform the final direction.
While my proposed design direction was not selected for further development, the initial concepts were well-received for their visual energy. The project's direction ultimately shifted towards a more understated, business-consulting aesthetic. My lead designer noted that while the work was technically strong, the client required a more conservative approach with less intense colour to align with their corporate positioning. I viewed this as a valuable lesson in balancing creative flair with specific stakeholder appetite.
I then shifted to supporting the lead designer's chosen direction, contributing problem-solving expertise to address layout challenges, optimise conversion paths, and refine component interactions throughout the refinement process.
The strategic solutions we implemented came together in a cohesive digital experience that positions Quell as both authoritative and approachable. The following UI gallery showcases how these design decisions translated into a polished, conversion-focused website.
Home Page
About Us Page
Contact Page
Launched a professional, conversion-optimised website within 12 weeks
Created a scalable design system for future growth to include: testimonials, case studies and blog
Established clear brand positioning in a crowded political consulting market
Designed for international audiences with multi-location emphasis
The client was particularly pleased with how we translated their "boutique consulting" approach into a visual identity that felt both premium and accessible, capturing their ethos of being strategic partners, not just service providers.
Delivered a complete digital presence where none existed, enabling Quell to compete for high-value consulting contracts
To ensure the Quell platform met high-performance standards, I conducted a final validation study. By testing the high-fidelity prototypes with real users, I was able to benchmark the interface against core usability metrics.
Reflecting on the journey
How did working across multiple project phases (branding, information architecture, UX/UI) deepen your understanding of holistic design thinking?
Working on this project offered invaluable insight into holistic design thinking. Beginning with branding gave me my first professional taste of how early decisions create a ripple effect - colour palettes and typography directly shaped information architecture, which informed UX flows, which determined UI components. Each phase built on the last, requiring constant communication across the design lifecycle. This end-to-end involvement taught me to think in systems rather than isolated deliverables, anticipating downstream needs like flexible frameworks for future content growth. Understanding how week-one branding decisions impact week-eight conversion optimisation made me a more strategic designer and thoughtful collaborator.
What did you learn about advocating for your design direction while remaining collaborative when another approach was selected?
This project taught me that advocating for design decisions means that articulating user needs and business goals will always trump personal aesthetics. The primary goal is to achieve the best possible result for the user and business you are designing for. When my proposed direction wasn't selected, I understood that not every battle needs fighting – my concepts contributed to valuable strategic thinking that informed the final hybrid approach. I shifted from creator to problem-solver, pivoting to support the lead designer's vision with the same energy I'd given my own, contributing solutions rather than resistance. This experience reinforced that ego has no place in collaboration, the best design wins and an effective collaborative effort produces the best results.
How has integrating AI tools like Relume and Claude into your workflow changed your design process, and what role do you see AI playing in your future projects?
AI has rapidly become a foundational tool in the modern design practice, enabling a shift from execution-heavy workflows to strategic-focused ideation. Relume handled information architecture generation while Claude produced initial website copy, freeing me to invest creative energy in brand differentiation and strategic problem-solving. Instead of starting from blank canvases, I became a curator and refiner of AI outputs – elevating my role from pixel-pusher to design director orchestrating strategic decisions. Moving forward, I see AI as a design partner handling repetitive tasks, allowing me to focus on strategic thinking, user empathy, and creative problem-solving that requires genuine human judgment. AI accelerated our process without replacing critical thinking – every AI output was validated against known user needs and brand strategy, ensuring AI integration amplified thoughtful design rather than replaced it.
