The Annual Creative Edit

A sentimental (but honest!) recap of my favorite work from 2025

Dec 11, 2025

This post might be too long for email, open it in your browser or the Substack app for the best reading experience.

Call me sentimental, but every December I like to reflect on my year: what I accomplished, the trips I took, the time I spent with people I love. I also set goals for the next year and put together my vision board (one of my favorite yearly activities).

It’s a nice practice to pause and recollect everything. Once it’s all in front of me, I’m able to see the things I took for granted and celebrate the wins I accomplished throughout the year (which are so easy to breeze past as the months go by).

I’ve had the most flexibility I’ve ever had since becoming self-employed this year, and with that has come some guilt. Am I doing enough? What could I be doing more of? How do I get more clients? I’m sure every person who becomes self-employed has asked themselves these same questions. And even with the success of the year, I still have that little voice in the back of my head asking if I should go back to a 9–5. But starting Static Cat has been one of the most rewarding ventures of my life.

While reflecting on my favorite moments of 2025, I thought it’d be fun to pull together my favorite projects from the year and share a bit about why I love each one.

I highly recommend doing this if you’re a creative. It was such a good reminder of how long a year really is — I’d actually forgotten about a couple of projects I completed in the first half of the year.

Let’s get into it!

1. The Mare Atelier Branding

My favorite projects are the ones where I get to collaborate with other creatives, and working with Mare was no exception. She’s a fashion designer who creates beautifully eclectic bridal pieces (and they are GORGEOUS).

For this project, Mare wanted an ornate, vintage-inspired logo with a modern edge. She also wanted to custom-stamp the logo onto fabric so each bride has a unique tag. To add even more sentimentality, she wanted a custom card she could use to write notes to her brides.

This one was such a fun way to explore an industry I love, and one I want to do more work in. Every part of the process felt like a dream, and I’m very, very happy with the end result.

You can check out her site here and see the full project details on Behance here.

2. Djerf Avenue Look Book

One of my main goals for 2026 is to work on more look books. I love them — putting them together, collaborating with other creatives, building something beautiful. I did get the chance to design one for nature-inspired slow-fashion designer By Ely Atelier for her summer show in Edinburgh, and it was fabulous (check it out here).

After that, I was itching for more, so I created a look book for a brand I love and buy from often: Djerf Avenue. This was purely a passion project (though I did send it to them 😌).

I love their whole aesthetic, and the community and friends I’ve made through the brand are unmatched. They make the best wardrobe staples! I’ve had some of my pieces for years and they’re just as good as the day I bought them (many, many washes later).

This was one of my favorite passion projects of the year because I really tried to channel the brand. Even though I had full creative freedom, I wanted to create something that felt true to them while experimenting with new branding elements. I’m really proud of how it turned out, and it was a great reminder of how important passion projects are.

Here’s to hopefully collaborating with them next year 🤞

You can find full project details on Behance.

3. Reframed Substack Branding

Another amazing client project. Ashley reached out after finding me on Substack and wanted a refresh for her publication, Reframed — a career insights newsletter about navigating work, leadership, and self-advocacy. It’s incredible, so I highly recommend checking it out.

Our guiding words for the brand were depth, authenticity, and premium. Every branding asset was created with those pillars in mind. I loved this project because Ashley articulated her thoughts so clearly — why she liked something, why she didn’t — and that can be rare. I also loved her intention and passion. Plus, I love Substack and want to do more work like this next year. Let me know if you’re interested!

The branding and materials turned out stunning, and I’m proud to have this one in my 2025 collection.

You can find full project details on Behance.

4. FIG Magazine

One of my dreams in life is to have my own printed magazine. I always get stuck on the theme, but I know I’ll make it happen someday. I did create FIG this year, though, and I had SO MUCH fun. I just want to make it longer and real. I want to hold it in my hands. I won’t go too deep here because I did a full walkthrough earlier this year (linked below).

Inside FIG Magazine

Bailey Zelena

July 10, 2025

Read full story

This project reaffirmed how much I adore editorial design and how I want to go even deeper into it next year. It was especially fun because I blended my love of editorial, music, and fashion into one. I even used a couple of articles I wrote on Odyssey in 2016, which felt really special.

For my designer friends, here’s another plug for passion projects because I can’t recommend them enough!

You can find full project details on Behance.