When You're Your Own Most Demanding Client
Working for clients comes with a budget, a deadline, and someone expecting a final delivery. Working for yourself? That's a different story. Suddenly every creative direction deserves exploring, every detail feels urgent, and because nobody's chasing you, the deadline politely moves itself to tomorrow. Again.
That freedom is tempting. I had to give it edges, otherwise Nastova would still be a folder full of drafts and half-finished ideas. At some point I had to say, build the first workable version and leave the polishing for later.
Building your own brand also gets tricky when you are part of the product. I love color, playful patterns, visual experiments. The zebra pattern I once hated somehow became part of my personal identity. And lavender? Anyone who knows me knows that obsession.
Luckily, Nastova is founder-led, so there's space for my personality. But I also wanted a serious business. That meant learning brand strategy, defining an audience, doing the not-so-glamorous work before touching the visuals.
Even the color palette needed discipline. The first versions were so saturated, they felt loud. I wanted energy and playfulness that people could actually enjoy looking at.
Once the strategy was ready, I started designing the site. Homepage first, then the rest, desktop, tablet, mobile. Then came the illustrations. Some early attempts were far from perfect. I used them anyway. Spending weeks perfecting details would have been an excuse to delay.
What I've learned so far is simple. A deadline doesn't kill creativity, it stops perfectionism from making all the decisions. My perfectionist side is still negotiating, but the work is moving