Throughout the Ardé Rugs project, I approached the work as a complete end-to-end product design challenge - starting with a clear problem: handmade rugs often feel inaccessible to younger audiences, despite their interest in design and craftsmanship. My goal was to create a brand and digital experience that felt premium yet approachable, guided by design principles centered around simplicity, authenticity, and aesthetic clarity. Through user research, I developed two key personas: the interior designer seeking detailed craftsmanship cues, and the young aesthetic buyer seeking inspiration and affordability - and identified insights that shaped the project, such as the need for styled lifestyle imagery, simple navigation, and clear visual indicators of rug quality. I built the brand identity from scratch, including logo development, typography, color palette, and tone of voice, ensuring everything aligned with a minimal, chic direction. I supported this with a full content strategy, producing photoshoots locally and in Venice, and creating imagery that fed both the website and social channels. On the UX side, I designed the site map, category structure, wireframes, and product layouts, focusing on intuitive browsing, hover zoom effects that highlight knotting and thickness, and rug collections grouped by “vibe” to make selection easier. The final result was a cohesive brand and digital experience supported by a structured design system, responsive UI components, and thoughtful development handoff-bringing the vision of accessible, design-led handmade rugs to life.