From scattered to self-assured:
Lauren’s HIYA VIBES transformation
Before HIYA VIBES, Lauren’s brand wasn’t lacking depth. It was lacking a way to hold it all together.
I had followed Lauren for a while, watching her transition from in-house roles at brands such as Benefit and Made.com to a self-employed portfolio career while sharing her journey on TikTok. Now, she’s an established careers communicator, speaker, and strategist helping people make sense of their working lives with honesty, warmth, and zero performance. Her work lives in nuance. In the grey areas. In the conversations most people are too polished to have. She doesn’t sell a perfect path, she offers perspective, permission, and language for things people feel but can’t quite name.
While she had built a community on TikTok and LinkedIn through her transparent career advice, and worked with an agency to define visual elements such as her logo, colours, and fonts, her brand wasn’t reflecting that clarity when it came to the tone of her overall visual world.
‘Before HIYA VIBES, my visuals lacked consistency and intention. I was relying heavily on a mix of stock imagery, selfies, and low-quality event photos, which meant my brand didn’t feel cohesive or recognisable. While I’d spent time thinking about guidelines like fonts and logos, there was no clear visual identity bringing everything together.’
The depth was there. The thinking was there. But the visual thread? Missing.
Examples of Lauren’s new images. See more images -> here.
The Challenge
It wasn’t like Lauren needed louder visuals, she needed truer ones. Her brand lives in subtlety and emotional intelligence. In creating space rather than noise. That’s not something you can fake with stock imagery or patch together with a few Canva templates.
She needed a visual identity that could hold:
- Thoughtfulness without overthinking
- Warmth without performance
- Authority without distance
But like so many people, she was stuck in the gap between knowing how she wanted things to feel and actually being able to express that visually. The result was inconsistency, not because she lacked clarity, but because she didn’t yet have a system to translate it.
Examples of Lauren’s new images. See more images -> here.
The Vibe Definition
We started with the Vibe Check, creating space for Lauren to pause and reflect on her brand in a deeper, more intentional way. This is how she described the process:
‘I absolutely loved the process. Marianne made it such a joy from start to finish. Seeing everything pulled together so clearly was quite emotional, it captured what had been sitting in my head (and scattered across Pinterest boards) in a way I hadn’t been able to articulate myself. It also forced me to pause and reflect. When you’re moving at a million miles an hour, you rarely stop to think about what you’re actually building visually. This gave me that space, and for the first time, I felt like I had real direction. Overall, it was a cathartic and genuinely enjoyable experience.’
That word, direction, sums up everything I’m trying to do with HIYA VIBES and the Vibe Definition process.
When Lauren saw her Vibe Definition Report for the first time, her reaction was immediate:
‘Pure joy. I remember opening the document and just beaming. I immediately shared it with a few friends saying, “look at this”. It felt so me in a way I hadn’t been able to articulate myself before. It was fun, fresh, and incredibly affirming, like someone had taken everything in my head and expressed it better than I ever could.’
That moment of recognition is the shift that I always look for. HIYA VIBES is not about becoming someone new, but finally seeing yourself clearly.
The Shoot
Once Lauren’s visual direction was defined, I created her HIYA VIBES bespoke still life library around that grounded, editorial energy. Calm confidence, thoughtful compositions, objects that feel lived-in rather than styled within an inch of their life. Coffee mid-sip. Notes mid-thought. Space to breathe. Nothing rushed. Nothing performative. It helped that Lauren sent in personal items to include in her shoot, that elevated the unique nature of the final images. No-one else will have these photos, they are 100% about her.
‘My first reaction was, “oh wow, this IS me”. It felt like I was seeing a clear, visual version of myself and my brand for the first time. It was exciting, a little surreal, and really empowering. The quality and consistency felt like such a step up from what I’d been using before, everything just looked stronger, more intentional, and more aligned. I felt so excited to start using it.’
Examples of Lauren’s new images. See more images -> here.
The Toolkit
Alongside her image library, Lauren received the Vibe Toolkit, designed to make the visuals usable, not just beautiful. When I asked her if she found it useful, she described it like this:
‘Yes, this is where everything really came to life. While I’m a creative person, the toolkit made it tangible. It showed exactly how the imagery could be used in practice, across different platforms and formats, which made it much easier to apply consistently. Seeing how it all worked alongside my existing brand elements, like fonts and colours, was incredibly valuable. It turned the vision into something clear, practical, and actionable.’
That’s the difference between inspiration and implementation. The Toolkit bridges that gap.
The Outcome
Since receiving her HIYA VIBES library, Lauren has already started to feel the shift in how she shows up.
‘It’s given me a level of consistency I simply didn’t have before. I’ve been creating content in the background, and having a clear set of visuals has made everything feel more cohesive and intentional. It’s also been incredibly helpful when working with external partners. Instead of just sharing guidelines, I can now provide a visual library that brings the brand to life. I’m currently updating my website using the imagery, and it’s already clear how versatile and valuable these assets are going to be across everything I do.’
This is where HIYA VIBES goes beyond social media or a headshot shoot. It becomes infrastructure. A visual language that supports everything: content, collaborations, website, partnerships. When I asked Lauren what she’d say to a friend considering HIYA VIBES, she said:
‘I’ve had such a positive experience working with Marianne, and I would absolutely recommend HIYA VIBES to friends and peers. The process helped me better understand who I am as a brand, and more importantly, how to express that visually in a way that feels authentic and distinctive. It’s something I hadn’t fully considered before, but now I can see how valuable it is. When I went self employed I said “I want to do great work with great people” and this experience has absolutely been that.’
Examples of Lauren’s new images. See more images -> here.
Why It Matters
Lauren’s transformation isn’t about becoming more visible for the sake of it. It’s about becoming more recognisable. More aligned. More at ease in how she shows up. HIYA VIBES didn’t change her voice, her values, or her work. It gave them somewhere to live visually.
When your brand finally feels like you, you stop second-guessing. You stop patching things together. You start building something that holds. And that’s when everything gets easier.
Ready to Find Your Vibe?
Whether you’re established, emerging, or still figuring yourself out…
If you’re tired of swirling ideas that never quite land…
If you want visuals that reflect not just your work but your inner world…
the HIYA VIBES METHOD™ meets you right where you are.
Begin with the VIBE CHECK, see your identity come into focus in the VIBE DEFINITION REPORT, and walk away with a HIYA VIBES still life library + TOOLKIT that reflects the real, imperfect, becoming version of you.
Marianne
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Discover the HIYA VIBES METHOD™.