Artist in Residence Series - Design Salad
A Q&A with Candice from Design Salad
“ I believe the more varied the inspiration, the more authentic the branding can be. Because brand design is ultimately about being interested in and understanding the world around us.”
Candice – Founder, Designer, Colour Enthusiast at Design Salad
When messaging and branding work together, heart-moving stuff happens.
This Artist in Residence series is my way of shining a light on the creativity and insight of a few favourite brand designers I deeply admire.
I want you to see how good design can amplify your story and competitive advantage – in a way that only a human designer who celebrates your natural differences (just like a human copywriter) can.
At the end of the day, we want you to have a soulful brand ecosystem that calls in your best people.
One that’s deeply human and unforgettable; future-proofed against the bot-slop; and rooted in your unique quirks and story.
Let’s meet our artist!
This month’s Artist in Residence is Candice from Design Salad
Candice is a Melbourne-based illustrator and designer who specialises in strategic branding combined with hand drawing and art history. Candice founded Design Salad in 2016 to help businesses connect with their dream clients and grow their impact.
Candice is also the brains and heart behind my branding for Bookleaf Copy (including this amazing font choice!) – and honestly, one of the nicest humans you could hope to work with.
It is such a beautiful full-circle moment to be sharing her magic with you today.
I’d followed Candice for a while before we worked together in 2024. Deep down I knew she was the one I wanted to help me bring my brand to life!
Working with her felt like such a milestone. It was one of the first big investments I made in my business. It was also the right moment to give Bookleaf a brand that truly reflected where I was headed as I niched into brand story and messaging.
Candice took all my messy notes, thoughts, and feelings and turned them into something that felt so me and 3D.
She helped me lean into my quirks and bring them to life — perfectly aligned with the Bookleaf plant and my dream clients. I still adore every part of it: the logo, the patterns, the clever submarks, the colour palette, and beautiful hand-drawn icons. You can read all about the meaning behind it here.
Beyond the visuals, Candice helped me confidently step into my next era. To feel grounded and ready to show up as the brand I’d always imagined.
I am so excited to celebrate the artist who helped me plant the visual roots of Bookleaf! And whose creativity continues to inspire me.
Read on for Candice’s take on the importance of heart-moving, human-centered design 🎨
What first drew you to graphic design?
I’ve been drawing and painting often since I was a toddler. When I was 14, my dad asked me to design a safety poster for the company he worked for. I absolutely loved the opportunity to use my creativity for something useful. I played with Microsoft Publisher and Powerpoint, and even added those shadow text headings that I thought were very advanced!
It was then that I realised everything around me had been designed by somebody, and it was exciting to think I could be part of creating what our world looks like.
What was the process like leaning into your quirks to develop your own branding for Design Salad?
It was a whole mixed bag of emotions! I originally launched my business as Paige Digital back in 2016, and rebranded to Design Salad in early 2022.
At the beginning of the rebrand process, there was a feeling of discovery as well as a sense of coming home.
Then vulnerability and rawness crept in the more the brand felt like ‘me’ and I got closer to launching.
But rebranding to Design Salad was the best decision for my business. I’ve grown continually since then and am so fortunate to work with incredible clients who are genuinely awesome people looking for an artistic eye to bring out their quirks.
Have you niched or pivoted your style over the years?
Yes! I’ve always been drawn to a variety of art and design styles and dabbled between bright and bold, fine lines, earthy and raw, and back again.
But once I studied brand strategy, I finally understood how to find a brand style for my business that would attract the kinds of clients I love to work with (and who benefit most from my services).
Now, I primarily work with businesses who need my preferred (and strongest) brand styles - bold, decidedly unique, and often a healthy serving of colour!
What advice would you give to brands who are looking to define their own quirks?
If you’re somewhat introverted, start as if no one else is going to see!
Sometimes we edit before we finish thinking the thought through, but it only helps your competitors for you to hold back.
So imagine no one else exists and just write or collect images together without thinking too much; save that.
Next, make a copy. Then imagine you are a dream customer/client, and look at what you’ve done through their eyes. What are they drawn to? What doesn’t connect for them?
Slightly edit and trim this second version through your customer’s eyes.
Now you have your quirks in writing or images, that will also connect with your audience.
This second part is where most businesses miss the mark. This leads them to either believe they need to be more like competitors, or spend far too much time and money trying to get those sales.
How do you translate a client's quirks and story into visual elements?
After many years of changing the process for each client, I gradually created the Triple Layer Brand Framework.
It’s a visual identity development process that includes your preferences (and quirks!), your audience’s preferences, as well as ensuring it’s different from your competitors.
There’s a lot of imagining involved actually!
It sounds strange writing it down, but first I imagine that I am your business; what I like doing, eating, who I hang out with. Then, I research your target audience or favourite existing audience, and find out what the overlaps are, visually.
At this point I’m beginning to draw sketches in books, cutout magazine clippings of text, textures and photos.
Once I have 3-4 juicy ideas, I move to Adobe Illustrator to digitise and refine to two concepts, ready to present.
How much easier or more effective is your design work when a client’s values, vision, and messaging is clear?
This is huge.
The client’s vision and values set the scene, and the messaging can be the initial expression of those.
From here, my job is much easier and it saves time researching to bring it to life.
There are, in my mind, many parallels between language and visuals; both create feeling.
So if the messaging is clear, it creates a clear feeling, and I can then turn this feeling into visual design.
What kind of visual elements do you think are most underrated in branding?
FUN!
Have fun with your branding and marketing material, and don’t forget that your audience is, increasingly, looking to be entertained.
Do something unexpected, off the usual template, put wacky ideas together and see what happens! Your brand guide should still leave room for creativity. You can be professional and fun!
The other is audience and competitor research. There are far too many brands inspired by others in the same industry who end up being drowned in the noise. It’s essential to understand and own your own position in the market.
Because you can create a brand that looks and feels 100% ‘you’, but if no one else gets it, it can’t sell your work for you and get that ROI you ultimately need.
What would you say to a business owner who doesn’t feel ready for design yet?
Ask yourself why first. Is it because the brand vision is so big or complex that it’s daunting or scary? In this case, you will hugely benefit from brand design to clarify and distill your vision into something you can tangibly use. You’re ready to move toward that vision!
If you don’t have an exciting vision for your business (not necessarily visual, but where you see the business in a few years), it will be hard to justify spending money on building it. Because you don’t have anything to build.
In this case, stack up more time in the business first.
Spend another year learning, reflecting and understanding what you want for the business long term.
Then, you’ll be poised for a professional and strategic rebrand to take you there.
Can you walk us through one of your favourite brand design projects?
Just one?! There are so many that have been absolutely fulfilling and stretched me and the client in the best ways.
One of my favourites was creating the branding and collateral design for Anna Peck Psychology.
Anna had a clear idea of what she didn’t want, a few visual references, but most of all, she knew how she wanted to feel going to work each day.
Our strategy session was a lot about which clients made her enjoy work, what they had in common, and how they brought out the best in her own psychology methodology. We also chatted about the other therapists in the clinic she works at, how to stand out in the business card stand (of 20 different business cards), and what Anna didn’t like about the aesthetic trends in the wellness industry.
Anna had an image of tarot cards in the reference images, and I could immediately see how the brand should look.
I spent time drawing it all in my sketchbook, including a pen drawing of a Currawong bird, while listening to the native birds in the garden outside my studio.
It was all a bit magic, pun intended.
What inspires your work outside of client projects?
So much!
I’m one of those people who picks up nice leaves off the ground, photographs walls with old repair patches, visits museums for fun, reads New Scientist, asks lots of questions, buys kids’ books at the op shop for myself… and travel, of course, is a feast for my mind!
I believe the more varied the inspiration, the more authentic the branding can be. Because brand design is ultimately about being interested in and understanding the world around us.
With the rise of AI-generated designs, how do you see the branding world evolving?
Firstly, I am seeing the Fiverr and Canva logos being replaced by cheap AI platform created brands. So far, they are at a similar level of quality, perhaps without the headache of many revisions with a human.
Ultimately, I think there will be absorption of AI into the designer’s toolkit, perhaps for brainstorming purposes, and definitely for execution.
A brand designer’s role will become more about drawing out a brand’s vision from the business owners and creative direction, rather than working on every detail by hand. This will impact junior graphic designers working in brand studios in a technical capacity the most, as their roles evolve into prompt-masters to create quickly using AI tools.
I tend not to pick sides in debates like AI vs human, as there are many nuances I’m yet to understand fully. However, I do plan to retain my practise of beginning each brand design project on paper, as it’s how my brain works best.
~
Thank you so much Candice!
I hope this chat sparked a new way of thinking about how truly unique branding can help your message land.
If you’d like to learn more, please reach out to Candice at the Design Salad studio over here.
In the meantime, thanks for being here and for being you!
Adele
PS - The best part about our quirks? When we embrace them, we not only align our own hearts with our work, we also bring more heart, colour, and connection into our community. Ooh yeah ❤️
