Many features, no single story
Beam, ReelIt, Selection, Selling: each one strong, but nothing tied them together into one clear promise.
Case study · SaaS · AI photos · 2026
FotoOwl
Designing where human insight meets machine imagination, from Mumbai.
Giving an AI photo platform a face people remember.
How I shaped FotoOwl’s visual world, from the first moodboard to a mascot, a website, an app, a brand-new CRM, campaigns and a stand on the expo floor.
All projects
- Role
- Graphic & UI/UX Designer
- Company
- FotoOwl · Pune, India
- Year · Team
- 2026 · with Marketing and Product
- Tools
- Illustrator, Figma, Canva, Higgsfield + AI tools
01 · Overview
A photo platform that finds you in the crowd.
FotoOwl is an AI photo gallery for event photographers. A guest takes one selfie, and face recognition pulls out every photo they appear in, from thousands, at weddings, concerts, sports leagues and corporate events.
The product was already strong: Beam sends photos from the camera to the cloud in seconds, ReelIt turns every guest’s photos into a personal reel, and photographers can let clients pick favourites or sell prints right inside the gallery.
I joined as the Graphic and UI/UX Designer to make all of that feel like one brand: clear enough for a busy photographer, and warm enough for the guests who open the gallery.
Why it mattered: people don’t fall for features, they trust faces. FotoOwl needed a look that felt as happy as the moment a guest finds their own photo.
What I did
- ABrand refresh, type and visual language
- BMascot design, 3D and motion
- CWebsite, gallery covers and link previews
- DPlay Store screens for the Gallery app
- EStudio CRM: a new product, desk to phone
- FCampaigns, reels and LinkedIn banners
- GOutdoor, print, merch and the expo stand
02 · The challenge
A powerful product with a scattered look.
Each feature spoke a slightly different visual language. Posts, website sections and sales material had been made at different times, and it showed. A photographer seeing FotoOwl for the first time, in a feed or walking past a stand, couldn’t tell in one glance what it did or why it was different.
My goal: one warm, confident visual system that explains the product fast, works from a phone screen to a billboard, and stays in memory long after someone scrolls past.
A tech look in a people business
Photography is emotional. The visuals felt like software, not like the joy of seeing yourself in a great photo.
Nothing to remember it by
No character, no signature moment. Easy to like in the moment, easy to forget after the expo.
03 · Research
Listening before drawing.
I started with the people who use FotoOwl. I went through the product as a photographer and as a guest, worked closely with the marketing and product teams, and studied how photographers talk about delivery on Instagram and at expos.
I also looked at how other gallery and delivery tools present themselves. Most leaned on cool blues and generic dashboards, which left room for FotoOwl to feel warmer, brighter and more human.
Who I designed for
The event photographer
Shoots thousands of photos in a day. Wants to deliver fast, look professional and earn more from every event.
The guest
Doesn’t want to scroll a folder of 5,000 pictures. Just wants their own photos, on their phone, right now.
The organiser
From weddings to cricket leagues: needs fans engaged, sponsors seen and memories shared before the crowd goes home.
What I learned
Speed is the promise
“From camera to guests within minutes” had to be felt in every visual: quick to read, bold, nothing in the way.
Photographers trust photographers
Real people with real cameras worked far better than abstract tech graphics. So the camera stays in the picture.
Yellow already belonged to FotoOwl
Instead of replacing it, I made it brighter and gave it a calm partner in deep navy.
04 · Inspiration
Golden hour, a flash, and an owl that never misses a face.
The idea came from photography itself: the warm light of golden hour, the pop of a flash, the white frame of a Polaroid.
And the owl, an animal that sees in the dark and spots everything, became the perfect symbol for face recognition that never misses a single guest.
05 · Branding
A sharper mark and a warmer palette.
Step 1 · Sketch
An owl in a Polaroid
Photography and AI in one simple shape. Every round took detail away until only the essentials stayed.
Step 2 · Construct
Friendly, not fierce
Rounded edges, a circular structure and a soft eyebrow keep the owl approachable at any size.
Step 3 · System
One mark, many places
A full lockup, an app icon and a standalone owl, in yellow, navy and white.
Step 4 · Type
Type that does the talking
Plus Jakarta Sans for the brand, Bebas Neue for big campaign headlines, Poppins and Inter for everything people read.
Colour
Owl Yellow#FFC021 · energy, the flash
Golden Hour#F8983F · warmth
Night Navy#2F2F5F · trust, calm
Ink#1A1A1A
Paper#F8F8F8
Typography
Brand & websiteAaPlus Jakarta Sans
Unlock true potential of every photo.
ExtraBold 800 · Regular 400 · fotoowl.aiCampaign headlinesAaBebas Neue
AI FINDS YOU.
Owl yellow + thin dark outline · Play Store, postsSupporting linesAaPoppins
Upload a selfie and discover every photo you’re in
Light 300 · SemiBold 600 for the words that matterProduct UIAaInter
₹18.4L booked · 68.5% collected
Regular 400 · SemiBold 600 · Studio CRMEach typeface has one job. The website speaks in Plus Jakarta Sans: round and friendly, still sharp at small sizes. For the store and campaigns I switched to Bebas Neue, tall and condensed, so three words can fill a phone screen, with a thin dark outline that keeps yellow readable on white. Poppins carries the one supporting line, and inside the product Inter keeps numbers and tables calm.
06 · Mascot
Meet the owl.
A logo explains. A mascot connects. I designed an owl character that could show up wherever FotoOwl talks to people: onboarding, error screens, social posts and the expo floor.
Personality
TrustworthySmartFriendlyHelpfulCurious
1 · Sketch
Always searching
Loose line art first: big curious eyes and a magnifying glass, because finding faces is its job.
2 · Explore
Six styles, four angles
Anime, Disney-like, line, 3D, pixel and flat, each in front, ¾, side and back views, so it stays the same owl everywhere.
3 · Give it form
Soft, round, 3D
A 3D version gave it weight and warmth for campaigns, in a yellow and a navy edition.
4 · Bring it to life
Then it moved
Waving hello, blinking, turning its head: small motions that make a brand feel alive.
Even the error screens smile now.
Moments that usually frustrate people became small, friendly scenes: the page that “flew away”, the owl staring at a dead Wi-Fi signal, the owl buried under a box of loose prints.
07 · Website
Explaining the product in one scroll.
On the website, my job was to make a complex product easy to read. The hero leads with the outcome, real faces show it’s about people, and every feature gets its own short, scannable block.
The menu sorts solutions by who you are (photographer, sports organiser or event planner) so nobody has to decode product names to find what they need.
The full page
Every section, top to bottom.
Keep scrolling: the page runs inside the frame, from the hero through features, use cases, pricing and the footer.
Sample galleries
Wedding covers that feel like a magazine.
Photographers judge a gallery tool by how their own work will look inside it. So for the website’s sample galleries I designed editorial wedding covers: the couple’s names set big, one short line of story, soft natural light. Each cover shows a different mood a studio could choose.
Link previews
The first thing people see is a link.
Photographers share FotoOwl links all day, on WhatsApp, LinkedIn and email, and every link opens into a preview card. I designed one for each product, all on one grid: logo top left, a promise in a few words, one supporting line, and a picture of the feature at work (a face scan, a Lightroom before and after, a QR code in hand).
Studio Aarav · Photography
FotoOwl · AI-Powered Photo Sharing Platform
fotoowl.ai
Your wedding gallery is live. Scan your face and find all your photos.
9:41
08 · Mobile app
Seven screens to win the install.
The FotoOwl Gallery app is judged on its Play Store page, in a few swipes. So every screen sells one benefit in three or four words, with the real app on a real phone.
How I built them: Bebas Neue headlines in owl yellow with a thin outline, one Poppins line with the key words in bold, a coloured ribbon that flows from screen to screen, and a hand-drawn sticker on each (a star, a peace sign, a heart, googly eyes), so the page feels like a celebration, not a manual.
Scroll · the store listing
01 / 07
09 · Studio CRM
The business side of a studio, on one screen.
Most studios run on a pile of tools: leads in WhatsApp chats, bookings in Excel, invoices on paper and reminders on sticky notes. FotoOwl set out to replace all of it with one Studio CRM, and I designed it end to end, from the desktop dashboard down to the phone.
Then I made the launch film: the mess of chats and sheets first, then everything falling into place.
Design decisions
- 01Money first: booked, collected, outstanding and overdue sit at the top, because that’s the owner’s first question.
- 02Every invoice shows a bar of what has actually arrived, with a plain status: paid, partial or overdue.
- 03Amounts in lakhs (₹18.4L), the way Indian studios really talk about money.
- 04Owl orange only for the one main action on a screen: New, New invoice, Book shoot.
- 05Soft colour chips per shoot type, so a month of weddings, corporate and pre-wedding shoots reads in a glance.
10 · Campaigns
Selling the feeling, not the feature.
Each product got its own story. Beam became “deliver your photos instantly”. Photo Selling became “turn every click into cash”. A month-end sale turned into a loud, comic-style reel built to stop the scroll.
On LinkedIn the tone grew up a little: partnership banners that show FotoOwl working with real leagues and brands, like the collaboration with Impetus Sports.
Scroll · the campaign wall
01 / 09
11 · Expo & merch
From screens to the expo floor.
Photographers meet FotoOwl in person at photo expos across India. I designed the stand graphics with one panel per product, so anyone walking past could understand a feature in seconds.
Then came the invitation posters with a QR code to register, and merch the team actually wanted to wear: hoodies, polos, caps and lanyards in navy and owl yellow.
12 · Toolkit
The right tool for each job.
I don’t have one favourite tool. For every piece I pick the one that gets it to its best, fastest: vectors when a shape has to be perfect, Figma when people will tap it, Canva when a post has to go out today, and AI when I need many directions quickly.
AI sits inside my process, not in place of it. It widens the search and speeds up the first drafts. The choices, the taste and the final craft are mine.
How a piece moves through my tools
- 01
Research
Facts, trends and references before I draw anything.
- 02
Ideas
Many concepts, moodboards and mockups, fast.
- 03
Craft
Where the real design happens, by hand.
- 04
Scale
Posts, banners and every resize, on brand.
- 05
Motion
The owl and the reels come alive.
Adobe Illustrator
Brand craftWhy: when a shape has to be perfect at every size, from an app icon to a stand banner, I draw it in vectors, point by point.
In this project: the owl-in-a-Polaroid mark and its construction, the mascot line art, and print-ready files for merch and the expo stand.
Figma
Interface designWhy: everything people tap or scroll starts here: components, layouts and prototypes the team can comment on in one place.
In this project: the website sections, the seven Play Store screens and the Studio CRM: dashboard, payments and the mobile calendar.
Canva
Content at speedWhy: some posts have to go out today. With brand templates in Canva I move fast without breaking the system I built.
In this project: social posts, LinkedIn banners and quick resizes for every platform and format.
Higgsfield
AI motionWhy: it turns a still idea into motion in minutes, so the mascot and the campaigns could move without a full animation pipeline.
In this project: the waving 3D owl, the animated error-state owls and the month-end sale reel.
ChatGPT
Concepts & mockupsWhy: to explore many directions quickly: ideas, first-draft copy and image concepts that I then correct and finish myself.
In this project: merch and billboard mockups, 3D mascot explorations and device scenes for the website and the CRM.
And the rest of my AI kit
Used where they help most
ClaudeMy thinking partner: research synthesis, UX writing, and turning ideas into working code.- GeminiImage generation for concepts, moodboards and product mockups.
- PerplexityResearch I can trust: competitor scans and market facts, with the sources right there.
- GrokWhat people are talking about right now, and a fresh second opinion.
- LovartQuick poster and layout explorations before I refine them myself.
LovableTurning designs into live, clickable prototypes I can share.
13 · Outcome & impact
One brand, everywhere it shows up.
A complete visual system
Mark, palette, type, mascot and layouts that the whole team can reuse without starting from zero.
A website that explains itself
Outcome first, features in short blocks, solutions sorted by audience: FotoOwl in one scroll.
A character people remember
The owl turns ads, error states and the expo stand into moments that make people smile.
One kit for sales and marketing
Social, LinkedIn, outdoor, print and merch now look like one company, at every expo and in every pitch.
A store page and links that sell
Seven Play Store screens and a preview card for every product, so even a shared link makes a first impression.
A new product, designed end to end
Studio CRM: dashboard, payments and a mobile calendar, plus the film that launched it.
The scale this brand speaks to
0K+Users
0K+Events
0B+Photos shared
0M+Guests served
Company figures from fotoowl.ai, October 2026.
14 · Reflection
What this project taught me.
Characters build trust faster than features
People forgot feature names, but they remembered the owl.
AI speeds up the search, I make the call
AI tools helped me explore concepts and mockups quickly. Taste, story and the final decisions stayed human.
Design for the busiest person in the room
If a photographer between two shoots gets it in three seconds, everyone does.
Next project · 02 / 06
Dugout