Role: Visual Designer
Timeline: 2025
Project Type: Social Media Design System

01 Overview

Witching Hour, a local Brooklyn bar with a cult following — dim lights, velvet shadows, tarot cards tucked behind the counter, and cocktails that feel like tiny rituals.

But their social feed didn’t match the atmosphere.

The stakeholders, wanted to elevate their social presence but lacked a cohesive brand identity or design system. Their posts were visually inconsistent, disconnected from the moody in-person experience making it difficult to build recognition or communicate their unique aesthetic.

They needed a visual identity for social that felt as enchanting as the bar itself.

So I aimed to design a flexible suite of modular social templates that established a consistent brand look and made it easy for the team to produce high-quality content quickly.

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02 The Problem

No defined brand system.
No repeatable visual patterns.
No templates for staff to use day-to-day.

The result: the brand’s personality was getting lost online.

My goal was to build a system that captured the bar’s dark, mystical energy  and made it effortless for the team to post consistently.

03 crafting the visual world

To build the foundation, I studied the bar’s in-person vibe and pulled inspiration from:

• textures
• tarot iconography
• deep shadows + grain
• celestial accents
• moody color palettes
• serif typography with personality

This phase was about translating ambience into design language.

Initial explorations leaned toward more generic bar/social media aesthetics, but they didn’t capture the bar’s mystical, intimate character. Iterating from those early designs, I refined the visual direction to reflect Witching Hour’s unique atmosphere while still remaining flexible for social content.

The overall design direction tone: mystical, elegant, and understated so it should be less corporate, more lore-inspired.

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Visuals: Maintain the tarot card / announcement poster layout. Use “frames” or ornate borders that echo the other cards, include small celestial motifs (stars, crescent moons, eyes, rays).

With a neutral palette with gold or cream accents and a small portrait or candid photo could go in an arch frame, slightly softened.

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04 Building the Modular System

I created a flexible suite of social templates designed around interchangeable, modular parts:

Typography blocks

• Image overlays (grain, gradients, shadows)
• Mystical accents (lines, symbols, frames)

These modules can be rearranged to support many content types.

• Event Announcements
• Weekly Specials & Cocktail Features
• Menu Highlights
• Staff Features / Introductions
• Storytelling Posts (editorial stories, lore-inspired quotes)
• Atmospheric “vibe” posts

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05 Key Design Elements

Typography

I used Didot and Playfair Display to bring elegance and refinement to the templates. Their high-contrast strokes and classic serif forms complement the bar’s dark, mystical atmosphere while maintaining readability and hierarchy across posts.

Color & Visual System

This color palette is extended along with background images of paper grains in Black. Black serves as the primary background across all templates. The beige and gold accents balance the textured backgrounds and are used primarily for decorative elements such as florals, dividers, and subtle graphic details.

Text hierarchy is reinforced with black as the default color for primary text, and grey for secondary or less emphasized text on lighter backgrounds. This approach creates visual contrast while maintaining a cohesive, mystical, and elegant aesthetic across all templates.

Texture & Imagery

Grain, soft glows, shadow gradients, and high-contrast photography to create mood.

Graphic Accents

Minimal but intentional: arcs, thin line-work, symbols that hint at ritual and mystique.

06 Final System & Implementation

The final deliverable is a cohesive, plug-and-play design system the team can use without design expertise.

Posts now look instantly recognizable, on-brand, and visually unified.

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07 — Impact

✨ Stronger brand recognition

✨ Faster social content creation

✨ A clean, consistent visual identity

✨ A feed that reflects the bar’s atmospheric, mystical experience

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Additonal Design Mockups

Drinks & Menu Features
Templates for drinks and menu highlights were designed to feel immersive and luxurious. Key design considerations included:

• Full-bleed photography of cocktails or menu items layered with gradient overlays or shadow overlays
• Beige and gold accent patterns for decorative details
• Clear hierarchy for text: white texts for main info, secondary details with background fill serves as a content block

These stories let the bar showcase their products in a way that feels elevated, visually cohesive, and instantly recognizable.

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Single Post Announcements
For announcements like events or special promotions, the templates were built to be flexible and attention-grabbing:

• Modular layouts for quick swapping of text, images, and decorative accents
• Bold headers paired with atmospheric imagery
• Accent elements used sparingly to draw attention without overwhelming the content

The objective was to make posts easy to create while maintaining a premium, branded aesthetic aligned with Witching Hour’s dark, mystical vibe.

The mockups below demonstrate how the templates can be adapted for different purposes, from single post announcements to engaging Stories, ensuring each piece feels on-brand and visually cohesive.

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Staff Spotlights
These templates were designed to showcase team members in a way that reflects the bar’s mystical, intimate atmosphere. Using modular layouts, I incorporated:

• Portrait or lifestyle photos
• Accent elements like gold dividers, florals, or linework to add a magical, editorial feel
• Typography hierarchy with Didot/Playfair Display to maintain elegance and readability

The goal was to humanize the brand, highlight staff personalities, and keep the look consistent with Witching Hour’s overall visual identity.

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08 — Reflection

This project was an opportunity to translate Witching Hour’s in-person atmosphere into a cohesive digital identity. The bar has a distinctive, immersive aura from dim candlelit interiors and velvet textures to tarot-inspired details and the challenge was to capture that essence while creating a system the team could use independently. The process required sensitivity to the brand’s mood, thoughtful iteration, and structured modular design.

Typography, texture, and modular components were central to establishing hierarchy, balance, and flexibility. High-contrast serifs like Didot and Playfair Display added elegance and sophistication, while a carefully curated color palette of black, beige, and gold accented textured backgrounds and decorative elements. Modular layouts allowed for everything from staff spotlights and menu highlights to event promotions and atmospheric storytelling posts — all consistent, visually engaging, and true to the brand’s mystical identity.

Ultimately, the system empowered the team to produce content efficiently, gave Witching Hour a unified digital presence, and translated their unique, in-person vibe into a compelling, on-brand social experience that resonates with their audience.

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A heartfelt thank you to the team at Witching Hour Bar for trusting me to bring their social media presence to life. Your passion for creating a unique, immersive experience made this project inspiring and enjoyable, and it was a pleasure translating the bar’s distinctive atmosphere into a cohesive, flexible design system.

Role: Visual Designer

‍Timeline: 2025

‍Project Type: Social Media Design System