Responses by Kaixa.

Background: The NIKI website showcases my art direction and typography skills. I also want to target other web designers and demonstrate that it is possible to build a complete website from A to Z independently and even win prestigious web design awards.

Additionally, I hope to inspire fellow designers from my homeland—Vietnam. The current generation of Vietnamese designers is incredibly talented with strong self-learning capabilities. We have many design education communities where we grow and develop together.

Design core: The core essence of NIKI lies in its bold typography system, complemented by structured lines to create a strong contrast between the site’s small and large elements. I designed the layout with a solid structure to convey a sense of modernity and technology.

To add a playful and nostalgic touch, I incorporated 3-D LEGO characters, each placed inside plastic packaging reminiscent of picking out LEGO toys from a store during childhood. Alongside these, I included things like floppy disks and vintage TVs to bring in a nostalgic retro aesthetic. This fusion of old and new creates a visually engaging experience that feels both fun and approachable for visitors.

Favorite details: One aspect I’m particularly proud of is the LEGO characters, which I spent a significant amount of time crafting. Each character represents a different member of the design studio, and they each hold an icon of their most frequently used tool for a personalized touch. I designed their outfits to be modern and futuristic to make the visuals even more captivating. I initially generated the characters using Midjourney and then refined and edited them in Photoshop to achieve the final polished look.

Additionally, I took great care in designing the packaging labels, ensuring the typography was both aesthetically pleasing and distinctive. Every detail was meticulously crafted to enhance the overall visual storytelling of the site.

Challenges: Coming up with an engaging visual direction. Initially, my demos were quite basic, consisting of only typography and images of the projects and studio team members. Then, I had the idea to involve LEGO characters. Since NIKI was a project where I wanted to play with new tools and explore a new role by developing a website, I thought incorporating a fun element into the visual direction would be interesting.

I ultimately decided to present the studio as a LEGO toy pack, where each designer in the studio would be represented as a unique LEGO character, dressed in outfits that reflect their personalities while maintaining a cohesive aesthetic. The retro-inspired elements enhance this theme, evoking childhood memories and the joy of playing with toys. My hope was that NIKI would also bring this sense of excitement and nostalgia to its visitors.

I also experimented with combining two display typefaces. This pushed the visual identity of the website to be bolder and more striking, creating a strong overall impression.

Alternate paths: If I could redo the website, I would incorporate more 3-D elements and interactive features. Initially, I experimented with a web interaction tool called Unicorn Studio, but I eventually decided against using it because it negatively impacted the website’s performance on older laptops. Ensuring a smooth user experience was my top priority.

If I had more time, I would invest in learning and implementing seamless 3-D effects and interactive elements. Hopefully, I will be able to bring those ideas to life in future projects.

New lessons: I learned a lot while building the NIKI Studio website, from getting familiar with the no-code tool Framer to using AI-powered tools like Midjourney to render the character images and backgrounds. I also integrated ChatGPT to help me write additional code for the site.

After completing the website, I gained a deeper understanding of a developer’s perspective. By understanding developers better, I can collaborate with them more effectively and create outstanding final products. This insight also enables me to design more creatively while ensuring feasibility—an incredibly valuable experience.

Navigation structure: The navigation follows the standard structure of a design studio website, including the main pages—Home, Work, About, Playground and Contact.

Since the website already features large, bold typography, I chose to keep the navigation light and minimal, using simple typography with clear, straightforward information. This ensures a seamless browsing experience, enabling users to navigate between pages effortlessly.

One standout feature is the Playground page, which showcases ten typography posters I created during the process of building the NIKI website. This served as both a way to practice typography and a creative outlet whenever I needed to refresh my ideas throughout the project.

Technology: As a designer, I don’t have the technical expertise to develop a website in a traditional way. However, the NIKI Studio project was a personal challenge that pushed me to explore Framer, an incredible no-code tool that allowed me to build a complete website from start to finish. I believe that in 2025 and beyond, Framer will become even more powerful, and I highly recommend that every web designer learns how to use it.

Special technical features: One of the most exciting parts of developing a website with Framer was the process of coding with ChatGPT. While Framer is a great tool, it still has some limitations when creating advanced effects and customization. To overcome these, I experimented with teaching ChatGPT how to integrate libraries like Lenis and GSAP to implement features such as smooth scrolling and loading screens.

For future projects, I plan to dive deeper into coding so that I can bring even more creative ideas to life. In the past, I used to think learning code was dry and technical, but after this project, I realized it can actually be quite fun. To all designers out there, I urge you to give coding a try! It’s a fascinating experience.