Overview

TerraBarn is a handmade terracotta jewellery brand that creates sustainable, artisanal pieces inspired by earthy aesthetics and cultural craftsmanship. While its products had a loyal following through word-of-mouth and local sales, the brand lacked an online presence and a defined identity system. Without branding guidelines, a clear audience strategy, or an e-commerce platform, TerraBarn struggled to scale and reach new customers.

Problem Statement

Despite having strong products and a meaningful story, TerraBarn lacked visibility and scalability. With no digital storefront, potential customers outside the immediate network couldn’t discover or purchase the jewellery. The brand’s visual identity was inconsistent, product showcasing lacked inspiration, and unnamed collections reduced memorability. Social media activity also lacked cohesion and failed to build emotional connections with the audience.

The challenge was to build a refined digital-first identity that translated the tactile warmth of handmade terracotta jewellery into an elegant online experience.

Our Role

As the project owner and design partner, our agency led TerraBarn’s complete digital transformation. We began with a brand audit, researched customer behavior and competitor strategies, and built a design system to guide all visual and digital decisions.

Key contributions included:

• Developing a moodboard and visual system with warm, earthy colors, elegant serif and modern sans-serif typography, and textural imagery inspired by terracotta.

• Creating a social media identity system to unify storytelling, voice, and aesthetics across Instagram and other platforms.

• Designing packaging concepts and storytelling-driven layouts to elevate the product presentation.

• Crafting a seamless e-commerce journey by building the platform on Shopify, enabling scalability, a refined customer experience, and smooth checkout flows.

Throughout the project, we managed timelines, made creative and technical decisions, and ensured every design choice reflected both TerraBarn’s roots and future ambitions.

Research

To ground design decisions, we studied both the product and its potential audience. Informal interviews and behavior mapping identified two primary customer groups:

• Millennials seeking unique, sustainable accessories.

• Older women valuing handcrafted, locally-sourced jewellery for gifting and occasional wear.

A competitor analysis highlighted what drives perceived value, which UI patterns simplify shopping, and how strong storytelling builds trust for artisanal brands. Based on this, Shopify was chosen for its scalability, proven e-commerce features, and integration with marketing tools.