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Silvia | Brand Designer & Illustrator

@shive.design

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Your branding big sister ✨🪩
Design tips, creative life & illustrations
Co-founder @flokstudio.eu
Prints & digital goodies ↓ NEW COLLECTION 🌷✨
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“It’s me, Shive!” Hey, I’m Silvia, but you can call me Shive. Born in Genoa (Italy), raised with the scent of pesto and a lifelong love for creativity. My obsession with design started early, somewhere between drawing Sailor Moon and creating masterpieces with WordArt on Windows 95. After studying Industrial Design, I freelanced like crazy, moved across Europe, and in 2017 landed in The Netherlands. That’s where I fell in love with branding. In 2023, my partner and I launched Flok Studio. Today, I’m the Brand & Lead Designer, helping others tell their story through visuals and strategy. Outside of design, I love cooking (yes, I’m Italian), and if design ever fails, you’ll find me running a restaurant. If you’re still here, say hi in the comments and tell me something about you!💟 Cheers!
Shive #ShiveDesign #MeetTheDesigner #CreativeJourney #BehindTheBrand #DesignStudioLife #BrandDesigner #FemaleFounders #VisualStorytelling #AuthenticDesign #LifeAsACreative by @shive.design
💜✨ Meet the new Shive Design! After months of sketching, doubting, and overthinking (because, let’s be honest, being your own designer is HARD), I finally hit pause and gave myself the same care I give to my clients. As many of you know, I’m the co-founder and designer of @flok.studio_ ,a brand design studio with a cool, minimal tone of voice and a strong strategic approach.
But… who’s Shive? This rebrand isn’t just a new logo or color palette.
It’s a reflection of how I’ve grown, a space where I can show not only my work but also the person behind it. 
The chaos, the creativity, the human side of being a designer. It started with a lot of trial & error, and the desire to make this space truly mine. And now it’s finally here: Fresh, bold, playful, a little chaotic — just like me! I know there will be adjustments along the way (there always are), but that’s part of the process , the essential step to evolve. Swipe through to see the full glow-up →
And tell me in the comments:
💬 What’s your favorite part of the new Shive? ✨ More designs & behind-the-scenes on the way!
Leave a ❤️ or a comment if you want to see more. #BrandReveal #Rebranding #ShiveDesign #CreativeStudio #IllustrationLove #BrandGlowUp #ColorfulBranding #PersonalBrand #FlokStudio #ThinkBoldDesignBetter #BoldDesign #BrandStrategy #LogoDesign #BrandIdentity by @shive.design
I was one of the lucky ones to win 2 months of Pulp & Press Mail Club, filled with amazing illustrations by my talented friend @cerahbethdesigns 🐌💌 Everything, from the envelope to the tiniest details, is so thoughtfully curated. It starts with a lovely message from her, followed by beautiful artwork dedicated to the most whimsical month of the year (yes, October, obviously 🎃). October is actually when I feel the most inspired and creative, and seeing other artists putting their work out into the world just adds an extra boost of magic to it all 💖 If you got this month’s mail, lucky you! If you didn’t... well, that’s sad. Maybe you can ask her nicely if she has a spare one 👀 Either way, I strongly recommend subscribing for November. Who knows what little wonders she’ll send our way next? See you in November! 🍂✨ by @shive.design
By now, you probably know I’m not much of a trend person... unless there’s meaning behind it or it sparks an idea. So when I came across #bioribelle (“rebel bio”), started by the Italian creator @storieconlaccento , I had to join the club ✨ I grabbed my notebook and started writing random things about my work as a brand designer, life as an entrepreneur, and... well, myself. Less polished, less “perfect”, but definitely more me. In a world full of AI-generated content, copy-paste trends and polished feeds, something genuinely human feels like pure gold. So here’s my rebel bio ❤️‍🔥 A few honest thoughts, good and bad habits, designer struggles, and all the beautifully imperfect bits in between. What would your rebel bio say? #rebelbio #branddesigner #creativeentrepreneur #designcommunity by @shive.design
I doodle at night, usually on the sofa, usually too late, usually with no plan. This collection started exactly like that, a tulip sketch that wouldn’t leave me alone until it became a cap, a tote, a mug, a postcard, a lock-screen. Living in the Netherlands does something to you in spring. The fields turn red and orange and pink overnight, and suddenly colour feels need it. Cuty Tulipas is my way of bottling that feeling, and putting it in your everyday life. Swipe to see everything 🌷 and if something calls your name, it’s waiting for you in the shop. Pick yours [link in bio]! #shivedesign #cutytulipas #springcollection #etsyshop #illustratorsoninstagram by @shive.design
I’ve always been picky with phone cases.
Most of them either look good or actually protect your phone. Rarely both. So I made these ❤️‍🔥 GoaAb is a mix of bold geometric patterns and a matte tough case that actually does its job.
Impact-resistant, solid grip, made to survive your everyday chaos without looking basic. It’s something you carry all day. Might as well make it stand out, add some colourful aesthetic, and feel like you ✨📱 Four designs (and more), all live in the shop.
Link in bio. Let me know your fave below 👇 #iphonecase #toughcase #geometricdesign #boldaesthetic #smallbuisness by @shive.design
With great pleasure, I’m introducing the first collection of the new season. THE BUTTERCUP GIRLS: Lily & Blues 💜🩵 Lily is soft chaos, a bit messy, a bit dreamy, never boring and she doesn’t try to control it. Blues is calm mystery, quiet, sharp and intentional, she doesn’t need to explain herself. And together they are unstoppable ✨ Their vibes can follow you through your day with a fresh crop top, an everyday cotton tote, a poster in your room, or during your coffee/tea/matcha break with the enamel mug. Everything is now available in my shop! [🔗Link in bio] Personally, I can’t resist them…what about you? Which one feels more like you? Let me know in the comments 🙃 #illustrationart #characterdesign #creativebrand #shopsmallartists #illustrationdesign by @shive.design
Being an experienced brand designer has its pros and cons. We notice things others don’t. 
We get excited about a perfect colour combo or a beautiful logo on a shop sign ✨ And at the same time we suffer when we see slap-on imagery, bad kerning, and overused templates 👎 (Yes, I know you made it with Canva, and that’s fine. It’s just you and another 100k people doing the same thing) Once you train your eye for it, you really can’t turn it off. But now I’m curious. 
What’s something you always notice in brands? Designers, founders, marketers… tell me 👇 #branddesigner #brandingstrategy #visualidentity #designlife #creativebusiness by @shive.design
I think we can officially say the new season has started, and with it… a fresh round of events where I’ll be hosting my Build Your Brand workshop!✨ In 1.5 hours, we’ll go through the foundations of a solid brand, the non-negotiable assets you actually need, and the common mistakes that quietly weaken your positioning. It’s practical, interactive, and you’ll leave with more clarity than you walked in with. “Ok cool, but when and where?” 📍 CREATOR FEST 2.0
14 March – The Social Hub, The Hague
Second edition of this amazing event with two rounds of workshops led by talented professionals (yes, including me). Learn, connect, and then… we party 🥂
Huge shoutout to @thehaguecreators @astroladsnl @thesocialhub 📍 YOUR BRAND BEGINS
27 March – Urban Cafe, The Hague
A beautiful collaboration with @human.prototype.lab and @evilstrawberry.draws . We’ll share experiences, connect, and dive deep into branding together! You’ll find all the details and ticket links in my bio. Spots are limited and these events tend to fill up quickly. Let’s build your brand 💜 Note: these are in-person events only. #buildyourbrand #brandingworkshop #thehagueevents #smallbusinessbranding #creativeentrepreneur by @shive.design
A bit of irony… but not much. I won’t stay here telling you what I think about AI, I’ll make another post for that 🤖 What I feel like saying right now is this: AI is a tool, a very useful one, but also very powerful and potentially dangerous. As a duo design studio (@flokstudio.eu ), we use AI to support our workflow, speed up research, and accelerate certain tasks. Otherwise, some processes would simply take much longer, and as a small business, time has value. We are conscious of how AI is trained and built, and we’re well aware of copyright issues and the broader environmental impact it’s having 🚰🌳, so what we actively try to avoid is the abuse of it. Now, when it comes to branding ✨ AI can help define strategy (and I said help, you still need your brain or a specialist’s). It can support positioning, competitor analysis, and information gathering.�But designing a visual identity from scratch, logo, color palette, graphic system, that’s where it becomes problematic. It might look convincing at first glance, but if you ask me, with 10+ years in branding, I can immediately tell when visuals are hurting a business instead of helping it. And the scary part? Most founders can’t. Yes, I know the struggle, especially the financial one when you’re starting a business or building a side hustle and don’t feel ready to invest in branding.�But if you’re serious about your vision, if you’re working day and night on your business, then branding is not an expense. It builds trust, increases perceived value, and supports growth🚀 And only a human brand designer can translate strategy into identity in a way that truly connects. Otherwise, you’re left with a bunch of assets that might look decent, but quietly damage your positioning and let your competitors win. #branddesign #humandesign #designstrategy #visualidentity creativedirection by @shive.design
The idea was to create a full galloping animation of the horse…but HELL NO. After it took me one hour just to get to this result, I respectfully decided this was enough. Life truly doesn’t prepare you to draw a horse. Anyway, Happy Lunar New Year 🧧🌙
Welcome Fire Horse year 🐎🔥 Hope this one runs fast, burns bright, and washes away whatever weird energy the Snake year left behind. #yearofthehorse #lunarnewyear #illustrationart #digitalillustration #goodenergy by @shive.design
As every beginning of the year, the design world shares the new trends for the next 365 days. Bold typography, new gradients, experimental layouts, AI this, maximalism that. And I love it, I genuinely do, because observing evolution is part of being a good designer. You should know what’s happening, and understand what feels current and what feels outdated. Awareness keeps you sharp! But here’s what 10+ years in branding has taught me: trends are references. And when we start forcing trends into projects where the brief clearly needs something else, that’s when things break. The brand might look cool on Instagram… but it doesn’t perform, it doesn’t last, and it doesn’t build trust. Branding is about creating something memorable that lasts for years. That’s why my 2026 “design trends” are different: ✨ Respect your value
✨ Choose quality over quantity
✨ Stop acting like a production machine
✨ Leave space for human mistakes Because what’s actually trending right now? Burnout, copy-paste portfolios, designers chasing aesthetics instead of building systems. If you’re younger in your career, let me tell you something as your designer big sister: you don’t need to follow waves to be relevant. You need to think, ask yourself questions, and design with intention. And if you’re a founder reading this, the right brand decision is rarely the trendiest one. It’s the one aligned with your strategy. So yes, stay curious, but don’t follow trends (blindly). Build work that still makes sense in 2030 🙂 by @shive.design

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