3s Design - Branding

When

2025

Why

3s Design ?

As the name suggests, 3s Design originally began as a simple platform to showcase my (3s) personal work. However, since 2022, it has grown beyond that – evolving from a personal archive into a full-fledged freelance design identity.

Visual Identity System

The 3s Design logotype was meticulously hand-crafted by myself. I based it on some of the most elegant and sensual serif typefaces I could find at the time, gradually crafting it into its current form. I had considered a sans-serif approach initially – but thankfully, I didn’t go down that path.

Alongside the logotype, I also introduced a pixel-art-inspired mascot, which appears across various brand assets. It adds a playful, recognizable touch to the identity.

Color Palette

The brand’s color scheme starts with two symbolic tones: paper white representing beginnings, and digital black for completion. To contrast this minimalist base, I introduced a bold vibrant orange. It functions as both an accent and an emotional driver — evoking energy, vitality, optimism, and passion — while forming a strong visual tension with the monochrome base.

Typography

For typefaces, I chose two of my all-time favorites from Pangram Pangram Foundry:

Eiko – a sophisticated and graceful serif perfect for titles and display use.
Neue Montreal – a clean, versatile grotesque with a calm and modern feel, used for body text due to its wide range of weights and excellent readability.

Business Card Design

I aimed to create a minimalist yet striking business card that leaves a strong impression. For printing, I selected one of the rarer techniques: letterpress.
The card is made with 300gsm Gmund Matt paper from Germany, duplexed to 600gsm for extra thickness and weight. The tactile quality of this paper combined with the ultra-thick construction gives off a mature, grounded feel. It’s finished with white foil letterpress, for a refined touch of contrast and craftsmanship.

Quotation & Invoice Design

For both quotations and invoices, I adopted a color-coded layout to categorize content. The idea was simple — clarity first, but make it cool.

Personal Website

If I could go back in time, I would still build the same website, even though I poured hundreds — if not a thousand — hours into building and maintaining it.
Everything from design, imagery, copywriting, domain management, server setup, and backend ops – I handled it all myself. Sometimes I wonder if I picked the wrong skill tree... I’m a designer, yet here I am, knee-deep in IT tasks.

The site was built on WordPress using Semplice 6. Semplice is like a box of LEGO bricks — and I’m that kid who ignores the manual and just builds from scratch. Every layout and page was manually designed and assembled — no templates used.

On Design Challenges

The hardest part wasn’t the web design itself, but translating the design into a functioning website. The original layout in Adobe Illustrator was even more ambitious, but technical limitations eventually shaped it into what you see today.

The second biggest challenge was responsive UI design. It’s easy to make a site look great on desktop — but once you get to tablets and phones, things often break apart. It was a real headache.

The final site is highly image-driven. It tells stories through visuals, not text. It’s not that I dislike writing, but rather, I want the visuals to speak just as the design does — to let the work narrate itself.