Happie.
UX/UI Design
Animation
Branding
Product owner; Myself and the Happie team
Contractor; Hogeschool Rotterdam
Duration; 4.5 months
During my minor 'I Love Brands' at Hogeschool Rotterdam, I spent six months diving into brand building: learning about brand models, consumer alignment, marketing strategies, and brand archetypes. I then also got the opportunity to immediately apply this knowledge in practice with the group project called 'Future Brand'. Here we developed our own brand from scratch – from vague idea to fully fledged brand identity, visual style, brand guidelines, and marketing concepts.
Our team created Happie, a service offering healthy, fresh, and customizable lunch boxes for children aged 9–12. Kids could use an app to pick their own lunch, while parents simply approved and ordered. The lunches would then be delivered fresh at home, removing the daily worry of whether their child was eating healthy.
THe design question.
"How can we develop a brandconcept that offers a healthy and easy lunchsolution for young kids and their parents?"
what i designed.
Since this was a group project, I didn’t create everything myself. However, I contributed significantly to the research, brand strategy, business model and most importantly the branding, visualization and content creation. Here's what I did;
Field research & interviews.
I designed and refined an interview framework (through multiple iterations with feedback from our lecturer) and conducted in-depth interviews with parents. This gave me valuable insights into their struggles with time, convenience, and the wish for healthy food. I coded and analyzed these interviews into insights that became the basis for our strategy.
Brand identity & positioning.
From my interviews I created my own Value Proposition Canvas, focusing on three recurring themes: health, convenience, and children’s involvement. These insights later shaped the final brand proposition.
Content & storytelling.
I wrote a brand story for Happie and developed concepts for content such as posters and animations, which we tested and improved based on user feedback.
what i learned.
Working on Happie taught me how to translate research into a clear and actionable brand strategy. By conducting interviews, coding insights, and applying models like the Brand Key and Merkwijzer, I learned how to structure a brand from the ground up.
It also showed me the value of balancing analytical thinking with creative storytelling: turning raw insights into a compelling brand narrative and visual identity. Most importantly, I experienced how involving the target audience early on makes a brand concept not only stronger, but also more relevant and impactful.
The result was a fully developed brand concept that was not only practical and innovative, but also socially relevant. Personally, this project allowed me to experience the complete brand development cycle: from desk and field research, to positioning, storytelling, and creative execution.
With Happie, I demonstrated how I can turn research into brand strategy and use brand models and creative concepts to bring a brand to life.