Building Willa Boo: an AI-assisted baby brand from packaging to Shopify store

Lead product, interaction & AI-assisted designer — Willa Boo is a playful baby brand created from the ground up.

www.willaboo.store

The beginning…

Background

Willa Boo began as a personal side project inspired by my daughter, Willa. The vision was to create a playful yet premium baby brand that would appeal to parents and gift buyers alike.

Challenges

  • Building from scratch: Unlike client projects, there was no existing brand, product, or site to redesign — everything had to be created from the ground up.
  • Consumer-facing focus: My day-to-day work is with NHS data and service design, so this project demanded a shift into retail, branding, and e-commerce.
  • Making it quickly: With limited resources, I needed a way to bring concepts to life rapidly for packaging, product visuals, and marketing.

Painpoints

  • Prototyping consumer products (plush toys, rattles, gift boxes) normally requires costly design and photography.
  • Storytelling and brand identity had to be distinctive in a crowded baby goods market.
  • Shopify had to be customised to balance a premium feel with conversion-focused layouts.

Original Willa Boo bunny concept

The middle…

How do you create a premium, playful baby brand with compelling visuals, packaging, and a working e-commerce site — without the traditional resources of a big retail design team?

Branding & Mascot

Designed the Willa Boo bunny as the core brand character, alongside a family of animal rattles (lion, fox, elephant, bee).

AI-assisted prototyping

Used AI-generated imagery to explore product mockups, packaging designs, lifestyle shots, and Instagram visuals at speed.

Shopify store design

Built a mobile-first, premium-feel website with variant selectors, upselling modules, and product storytelling sections.

Packaging & product sets

Designed gift sets (premium vs base) with clear comparison tables and upselling touchpoints (e.g. dummy catchers).

Marketing & storytelling

Developed Instagram content, ad copy, and creative visuals to test engagement with different demographics (younger parents vs grandparents).

And the end…

Outcomes

Launched a live Shopify store

With a consistent brand identity, product sets, and upsell strategy

Validated the
market

First sales came via Instagram ads, with clear demographic insights to refine targeting.

Demonstrated AI-assisted design

Showed how AI could accelerate prototyping across brand, product, packaging, and marketing.

Reflection

This project showcased how a diverse skillset across interaction design, service design, product design, and data can be applied to consumer branding. It also demonstrated the practical value of AI in design workflows, not as a replacement, but as an accelerator that helped me iterate faster, test ideas cheaply, and create a cohesive brand experience.

What’s next?

The actual Willa Boo bunny complete with squeeze activated white noise is now officially in development.
In the meantime, the animal themed gift sets will remain part of the core product line, with the animals themselves expanding in to different complimentary new born baby focused products.

Older case study

SERT – Cervical Screening Reporting Tool (NHS)