From foggy to focused:
Maddie’s HIYA VIBES transformation
To be fair, Maddie isn’t the type of client who appears on my enquiry form every week. In fact, she isn’t a ‘typical client’ for me at all. For a few years now, Maddie has worked with me behind the scenes, assisting on shoots, adjusting lights, carrying props, sometimes modelling, while quietly absorbing the rhythm of creative work from the sidelines. She’s younger than the women I usually work with, still in the early stages of building her career, still figuring out what shape her business might take. But she has a distinct emotional voice, a soft-grit worldview, and a sensitivity I’ve admired for a long time. I always sensed there was a brand inside her waiting to be articulated, even if she didn’t have the language for it yet.
That was what drew me to making her one of the early HIYA VIBES case studies. This project wasn’t just about the imagery, it was about helping her see what her brand could be, and challenging myself creatively by stepping into an aesthetic world that sits outside my usual riot of colour. Maddie’s brand is warm pastel, intimate, imperfect, tender, and rooted in the messy rituals of girlhood. It demanded a different kind of attention. A slower hand, a gentler palette, a shift from the punchiness of my commercial work into something more atmospheric. Working with her wasn’t just an opportunity; it was a creative refresh.
Before HIYA VIBES, Maddie struggled with translating her ideas into something visual. She told me:
‘I didn’t know how to put across my vision into a visual picture.’
Examples of Maddie’s new images. See more images -> here.
The Challenge
Even though she knew exactly what she cared about: softness, honesty, emotional messiness, beauty in the in-between… like many young creatives, she was swimming in ideas but had no map for how to turn them into a brand. She didn’t have a clear direction, only a feeling. And those feelings were vivid: she wants to give young women permission to show up imperfectly, to see beauty in their everyday rituals, to breathe out the moment they land on her content.
She wanted to reject the ‘clean girl’ aesthetic, not by swinging to the opposite extreme but by showing the truth underneath: the gloss half-wiped, the blush smudged, the cotton pads stained with colour. Her entire philosophy could be summed in the line that became her tagline: Messy is the new clean.
That was our starting point.
Examples of Maddie’s new images. See more images -> here.
The Vibe Definition
We began with the Vibe Check, a questionnaire designed to pull out everything someone hasn’t said out loud yet. Maddie approached it earnestly, breaking down her feelings about girlhood, identity, beauty culture, and where she fits within it all. She wrote about wanting to create a space where young women feel seen rather than measured. She wrote about wanting her visuals to feel like someone had opened a bedroom door at 2am and found a person mid-becoming. She wrote about softness without erasure. The Vibe Check gave her a framework she didn’t know she needed.
From there, I built her Vibe Definition Report, a document distilling her emotional core, colour palette, messaging, visual direction, and brand intention. The report revealed her essence clearly: empowered but soft, femininity with grit, experimental and imperfect in a deeply human way. It captured her aesthetic as ‘high-fashion meets messy bedroom’, and her palette as warm, blush-heavy, and lived-in, like a half-finished rosé left on the side. Most importantly, it gave her language for what she’d been trying to express for a while.
When the report arrived in her inbox, her response was immediate and heartfelt:
‘It gave me clarity on what I actually wanted for my socials and what my brand should really entail. It was the most amazing thing’.
She said it felt like unlocking something, a moment where all the fog she’d been carrying around her brand finally lifted. For someone who had been working from instinct alone, this clarity mattered. It gave her a foundation. A direction. A sense of identity she could lean into.
The Shoot
Once the themes were approved, I built her HIYA VIBES still life library using everything we had uncovered. This was where the creative challenge became exciting. Maddie’s world is soft, feminine, and intimate. It’s rooted in the textures of girlhood: the rituals, the mess, the things we usually hide or clean away before anyone sees. Instead of polished props, we used cotton pads stained with product, makeup bag tipped open as though she’d just left the room, lipstick-smudged cups, loose hair grips, gloss-stained tissues, sticky notes scribbled in a hurry, and eyeshadow dust that wasn’t cleaned up. Every prop was intentionally imperfect.
Her shoot themes became small narratives: the chaos of getting ready, the emotional residue of a cotton pad, the half-thoughts scribbled in a diary, the dressing table that reveals more than the mirror ever will, the work-from-bed moments of soft rebellion. These weren’t props, they were scenes. They were glimpses into her becoming.
When she received her library, her reaction was exactly what I hope for in this work:
‘It was almost like my brain turned into pictures… a really crazy experience, but amazing to feel understood’.
That line encapsulates what HIYA VIBES is about. Not decoration. Not filler content. Recognition.
Examples of Maddie’s new images. See more images -> here.
The Toolkit
Along with the library, Maddie received her HIYA VIBES Toolkit: a guide explaining how to use her images across platforms, with aspect ratios, examples, and advice on layouts and pacing. She told me:
‘The toolkit is super useful, I’ll be using it daily when I start posting’.
I know she will. The toolkit is a stabiliser for someone who’s still learning how to express themselves visually. It gives structure to a brand that’s still growing.
The Outcome
Although at the time of writing this, Maddie is still plotting out how to use her images, her feedback made it clear that the transformation is already underway. She said she now feels certain that applying her images and using the Toolkit will bring her more recognition, but more importantly, it will give her a sense of accomplishment, because ‘everything I thought has been portrayed’. The value for her isn’t just future visibility. It’s alignment. It’s seeing herself in a way she didn’t have access to before.
For someone still defining her path, having a library that reflects her truth becomes a compass. It gives her a visual identity to grow into. It gives her coherence in a time of experimentation. And it gives her confidence to move forward, even without all the answers.
Examples of Maddie’s new images. See more images -> here.
Why It Matters
What makes Maddie’s case study so important is that she shows the breadth of what HIYA VIBES can do. It doesn’t only serve established women ready to refine their brands. It also supports those who are still forming, still experimenting, still trying to figure out what they want to say. With Maddie, this wasn’t about translating a business strategy, it was about translating a feeling. Her brand is emotional, intuitive, and rooted in giving permission to be human. She needed visuals that honoured that softness without making it fragile, and messiness without making it chaotic.
When I asked what she would say to someone considering HIYA VIBES, she told me:
‘The process is super easy, and the images you get back… you’ll be astonished at how everything you said is now an image. The toolkit is especially helpful. Everything is in one place, and you’ve done more than I expected. I know these images will bring more recognition… and give me a sense of accomplishment because everything I thought has been portrayed.’
Imagine having such a strong grip on your personal brand and voice, even if you’re still becoming? That is exactly the outcome I wanted for her.
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…
HIYA VIBES 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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