A warm, paper-first brand for a journaling app that didn't want to feel like software.

Details

Role:: Brand Designer
Timeline:: 2025 · 4 weeks
Skills:: Identity, Typography, Voice, Art Direction
Team:: Solo, with two founders

Overview

Field Notes is a journaling app that wanted to feel like a notebook, not a dashboard. I built the identity — wordmark, palette, and a writing voice — around warmth, restraint, and the texture of paper.

Tldr

The brief was one word: unhurried.

I shaped a serif wordmark, a paper-warm palette, and a voice that sounds like a person, not a product — then carried it across the app, site, and launch.

Field Notes

Outcome

An identity people described as 'calm' before they'd used the app.

The brand did the early work of setting expectations. Sign-ups from the launch site converted well above the founders’ benchmark.