When I launched Haute Impact, I needed an identity that could do several things at once. It had to signal luxury without relying on lazy tropes. It had to feel modern enough to present as credible on technology, but organic enough to discuss questions of sustainability. It also had to nod to the tradition of French luxury without infringing or trading upon it.

The designer who solved those challenges was Vicky Xie.

In the conversation below, Vicky reflects on how living in China, France, and the UK changed her understanding of luxury, why branding is much more than a logo, and how the Haute Impact identity came together—from the tension between blue and orange to the moment the “H” and “I” finally clicked into place.

Franklin Boosman: You’ve lived in China and France, and now the UK. You also worked in luxury before becoming a full-time designer. How have those experiences changed the way you see luxury?

Vicky Xie: For me, it has really been a shift in mindset. That probably happens in stages for a lot of people when they first encounter luxury, although it may be different for people who grow up around it.

Looking back, luxury as we understand it today did not enter the Chinese market that long ago, at least compared to more established markets. I first became aware of it around the early 2000s, when people around me started using well-known brands. I definitely remember the monograms from brands like Louis Vuitton and Gucci. The brown tones and repeated lettering felt incredibly classic, and honestly, they still do. They do not feel outdated at all.

During university and in my early working years, I definitely felt a sense of admiration toward people who owned luxury items. At that time, I saw them very much as symbols of status. I also worked in a high-end retail environment where colleagues would sometimes try to guess whether a customer might purchase our additional services based on how they dressed. Interestingly, they were often right.

Later, when I started working with luxury brands myself, I began owning some of these products too. Then I moved to Paris to study art and luxury management, and that really changed things. We visited luxury houses, spoke with staff, and experienced things more deeply, not just as consumers but as observers. You start to realize that beyond the product itself—design, craftsmanship, quality—there is also history, culture, heritage, and even community. Luxury becomes less about the object and more about what it represents. The luxury brand becomes a kind of cultural symbol.

Before moving to the UK, I did not know as much about British luxury. I tended to associate luxury more with France, Italy, or maybe Switzerland. But here, you see a different expression: brands with royal heritage alongside younger, more experimental ones. British design often feels both traditional and forward-thinking at the same time.

The weather plays a role too. It is hard to imagine a woman walking around in a very fancy dress from a high-end French luxury house in constantly changing weather. Instead, you see how practicality becomes part of luxury: things like rain boots or weatherproof outerwear. I really enjoy that about British brands. When spring and summer arrive and people spend more time outdoors, there is also a shift in mood—more color, more lightness. It makes sense why brands like Burberry developed the way they did, responding to real life.

So if I look back, my relationship with luxury has moved from admiration, to ownership, to deeper experience, and finally to integration into everyday life.

Franklin: Do you feel that luxury has its own visual language?

Vicky: Yes, I do. I studied luxury culture at university, and that is when I began to understand that luxury is not just about products or sales. It also has its own kind of language.

There is a visual side, of course, such as product design and brand elements, but there is also something more intangible, like brand value and culture. When people speak of Louis Vuitton, they are not just referring to the brand’s name or the founder’s name. They are talking about the whole brand. They may think of the monogram, the Damier pattern, the brown trunks, or specific visual moments from past collections. You might also think of artists like Takashi Murakami or Yayoi Kusama and the worlds they created with the brand.

Over time, you realize how much you have absorbed that language without even noticing. Sometimes it becomes almost subconscious.

Franklin: What do people misunderstand about luxury branding?

Vicky: I think this applies not only to luxury but to branding in general. People often reduce branding to just a logo. Of course a logo is very important, because it is often what people remember first, but it is only a very small part of a much larger system.

Strong branding has its own way of communicating, and it creates a distinct impression. In luxury especially, branding goes beyond the visual. It engages multiple senses and creates a unique experience.

There is a quote by Maya Angelou that I agree with very much: people will forget what you said, and people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. I think the emotional impression always lasts the longest.

So when you visit a luxury store, it is more than a store visit. It is an experience in itself. Some of that may be carefully designed, such as the smell of the shop or the journey through the space. Some of it comes from human interaction as well. Either way, that experience is part of how the brand communicates its value, and it is part of luxury branding.

Franklin: When you design for a luxury brand, or for a brand that aspires to luxury, what are you trying to achieve?

Vicky: For me, it starts with the founder. I like to spend time understanding why they started the brand, what it stands for, and what they want to communicate to their audience. I am always interested in what is beneath the surface: the story, the intention, the perspective.

Only when I understand those things well can I translate them visually in a meaningful way. When I begin a project, I often start with simple questions such as: What is this brand about? Is there a story behind the brand or behind the brand’s name? Those conversations usually reveal what makes the brand truly distinct, and I can use those ideas from the founder to create the design.

Franklin: I’d like to talk about Haute Impact. I want to start by saying I couldn’t love the brand identity that you created any more than I do. It’s not anything I could have envisioned on my own, but it all seems so obvious now, which is a good sign, right? As in, looking at it now, of course it had to be this. And I get so many compliments on it. So I want to start by thanking you for the work you did for me. It's the foundation of everything I do, and I couldn’t and wouldn’t have launched without a strong brand identity.

When we first started talking, was there anything about the brief that felt especially interesting or challenging?

Vicky: Yes. First, I found the name itself really interesting. “Haute” immediately brings to mind haute couture, which carries a slightly French sensibility. At the same time, people often have a fixed idea about what French design means, and I was curious to understand what French design actually meant to you.

In terms of challenges, I remember that at the beginning you shared a number of visual references that you really liked. They were all quite strong, but they also came from very different brands. So for me, the first step was to organize that. I broke the references down, tried to understand what specifically resonated in each one, and grouped them into different visual directions. That helped turn something fragmented into a more structured design approach.

Franklin: What did the identity need to communicate, and what did it need to avoid?

Vicky: I think the identity needed to be recognizable. When people see something, they should immediately associate it with a specific brand, even without seeing the logo. That level of recognition is very powerful.

At the same time, it was very important to avoid anything that felt too close to existing brands. If I were designing for a luggage brand, for example, I would not use something that felt too familiar to Louis Vuitton’s monogram or color palette. Beyond that, I would also try to avoid anything controversial or distracting. The goal is to create something truly distinctive, but also appropriate and intentional.

Franklin: What tensions did you have to resolve as the design took shape?

Vicky: The main one was working with the dark blue and orange together. Both are strong, saturated colors, and the contrast between them is quite striking. Orange also has a very strong association with Hermès, so I needed to be very careful not to create that confusion.

I avoided using the two colors in a very direct or heavy contrast. Instead, I focused on creating balance and on using lighter, more modern visual elements. I introduced clean lines, geometric structures, and subtle Asian-inspired patterns to bring a more contemporary feel. That helped create a visual language that felt distinct and also separate from more traditional luxury identities.

Franklin: I love the color palette that you came up with, and recently, as an experiment, I created a version of the French tricolor flag, simply by using its aspect ratio and those three colors. And I remember thinking, this works. It’s like a French brand identity that has been put through a filter, so it’s not blue, white, and red;¹ it’s deep blue, khaki, and orange. I don’t cover just luxury in France, but my hope is that at some level, maybe subconsciously, it resonates with people—that some part of them will recognize that color palette as French-inspired, even if it’s not French.

Was there one specific decision or moment that made everything click?

Vicky: Yes, definitely. It was the relationship between the letters “H” and “I”. In uppercase, they can look quite similar to each other when rotated. I used that idea to design the logo mark, so that through rotation you can see both “H” and “I” in the same form. That was the moment when things really started to come together.

And to follow up on the colors, when you go to France you see blue, white, and red everywhere. Those are the national colors, of course. I think it is important to include something people already find familiar, so it becomes easier for them to resonate with the design. For a French-inspired luxury newsletter platform, it made sense to integrate something subtly French into the identity, as a way of showing respect for French luxury.

Franklin: Haute Impact sits at the intersection of luxury, technology, and sustainability. All three of those areas have visual clichés. How did you design around them?

Vicky: I think those concepts can mean different things depending on the context, so before I started, I asked myself what they specifically meant for Haute Impact.

Luxury, in this case, is more about positioning. It speaks to a modern audience who enjoy high-quality products and experiences, but who also care about the context behind them. So the brand needed to feel refined, but also thoughtful and trustworthy.

Visually, I approached that through a combination of elements: modern geometric type paired with elegant serif fonts, saturated colors balanced with softer neutral tones, and a dark blue that plays an important role in the identity. Blue often carries associations with luxury, but also trust and stability, especially in technology. It is also used quite often in luxury watches, which I think is a bonus.

For sustainability, I used more neutral and earthy tones, such as beige and cream. These colors are present in nature, and they remind me of natural materials like cotton, linen, or wool. Neutral colors also tend to feel more timeless and easier to combine with different things. In fashion, that matters, because timelessness can extend the lifespan of a product and reduce unnecessary consumption.

I was also mindful in selecting imagery, choosing visuals that could subtly reflect themes of luxury, technology, and sustainability. So the overall design stays closely aligned with those ideas without relying on obvious symbols.

Franklin: Before I started writing articles for the newsletter, when I thought about sustainability, I thought I would mostly be writing about things like leather derived from fish products, or, other goods being upcycled into luxury goods. I’m sure I will at some point, but most of my writing on sustainability so far has been about how we can encourage luxury makers to make things that last. The most sustainable product is the one that you don't have to replace. So I find it interesting that you referred to that yourself in your branding work for me.

What do you hope people feel when they see the identity you created for Haute Impact?

Vicky: I hope people feel that it is a reliable and thoughtful resource, not just another newsletter. I hope they feel the brand offers meaningful insight into luxury products and luxury culture, and that every time they read it, they gain a slightly new perspective on how the luxury world works—not just its products, but the things behind them.

I also hope there is a sense of ongoing discovery. The audience learns a little more every day: a little more about luxury, a little more about how these companies design and operate, and a little more about the ideas behind them. If readers can gain even a small amount of knowledge from the articles, and that knowledge helps them think differently, that is something very nice.

Franklin: We’re now in a world where so much content is generated by AI. How do you make a brand identity that endures and stands out in that environment?

Vicky: Recognizability is still very important—something people can instantly identify and remember. But beyond that, the design needs to be more than a fashionable look. It needs to be a system.

A brand identity is not just a single piece of design. It is a visual language, and that language needs to be repeatable, adaptable, and expandable over time while still feeling consistent. You can ask AI to do something for you, but AI still needs direction. It does not create on its own with intention.

For Haute Impact, I developed a set of repeatable elements that can be combined in different ways, such as patterns, layouts, and compositions. Those pieces create variation while maintaining a clear structure. Over time, that consistency builds familiarity, and that helps a brand endure and leave a stronger impression.

I use AI in my daily life too. It is helpful for generating ideas. But sometimes it feels like talking to a machine. It can be quite cold. It does not provide emotional feeling. In the design process, we talk, we discuss, we explore, and we try to discover what is under the surface. We are trying to find something truly unique for a brand, something that can create emotional association with people. Emotional impact is a very big part of experience, and luxury itself depends heavily on experience.

AI can give you the right answer, but the right answer is not always the best answer. Humans still need to think about what customers would feel. That is why real human interaction still matters so much, especially in luxury.

There was one time I went to a Louis Vuitton shop and saw an artist doing personalization in the store. She was painting a pet for a client, and that pet had been a very close companion who had passed away a few years earlier. Seeing someone use real art to paint something so personal onto a product creates a feeling that is very hard to replace. AI may be able to imitate parts of that process, but it cannot give you the same emotional feeling that a real human can.

So I think that is the difference. AI can support the process, but to create something enduring, especially in luxury, you still need human understanding, emotion, and care.

My thanks to Vicky for our conversation, and for her thoughtful work that gave Haute Impact its visual language.