613Flea

613Flea is a not-for-profit indoor marketplace in Ottawa known for vintage pieces, handmade goods, and local vendors. This project reimagines its brand identity and website to create a more current, cohesive presence across digital and print platforms.

For years, 613Flea has built a strong reputation as a vibrant indoor marketplace in Ottawa. As the market grew, its brand and digital experience did not fully reflect its scale or cultural impact.

The goal was to develop a refreshed yet familiar brand identity that strengthens 613Flea’s overall visibility while preserving its local roots. The focus was on modernizing the visual system to improve brand recognition, building a flexible design framework that supports a diverse vendor ecosystem, and designing a responsive five-page website that improves navigation, clarity, and overall user engagement for both visitors and prospective vendors.

The creative direction focused on keeping the market familiar and community-led while giving it a more polished and scalable visual system.

To help position 613Flea as a leading cultural destination, a comparative market analysis of local and national marketplaces was conducted. This research revealed a clear market gap: an opportunity to combine large-scale presence with a modern, creative brand identity.

Market Competitor

Nextdoor Ottawa

Strengths

• Highly "Instagrammable" branding that resonates with a younger, trend-conscious audience.
• The site uses a dedicated events calendar.
• The site uses bold, high-visibility banners to create urgency and encourage vendors to apply.

Weaknesses

• A much smaller footprint at 4,000 sq. ft.
• The site is event-focused and lacks a year-round vendor directory.

Key Features

• A live Instagram feed keeps the homepage dynamic.
• A section promotes space rentals.
• A detailed FAQ covers specific visitor questions and niche events.

Market Competitor

Stittsville’s Carp Road Flea Market

Strengths

• Offers a mix of 20,000 sq. ft. of indoor space alongside outdoor stalls.
• Offers a wide range of products, from everyday items to rare collectibles.
• The website text is easy to read.

Weaknesses

• The visual presence and website feel "old-school," which may not appeal to Gen Z or Millennials.
• There is no way to search for a specific vendor or "favorite" an item; the site mainly communicates information one way.

Key Features

• A standard functional map in the "Location" section helps with GPS navigation.
• Direct Instagram and Facebook links show an active, real-time community presence.

Market Competitor

Aberfoyle Antique Market

Strengths

• Offers a "day-trip" experience with a full-service restaurant and picturesque grounds.
• Known for high-quality, authentic antiques rather than "garage sale" items.

Weaknesses

• Requires a $5–$10 admission fee, which discourages casual "window shopping."
• Has a limited operating window from May to October, leaving a gap for year-round markets.
• The design feels basic and safe, more like a tourism brochure than a modern retail experience.

Key Features

• A clear call-to-action to subscribe for email updates helps maintain a long-term relationship with collectors.
• A professional, multi-step contact form supports high-end antique dealers.

Three personas were developed to represent the main groups 613Flea needs to support: a discovery-driven local visitor, a prospective vendor, and an out-of-town family planner.

The personas were translated into clear design opportunities. Each pathway connects a user need to a practical design response that supports the redesigned 613Flea experience.

The sitemap was designed as a simple, multi-path structure that supports both exploration and quick access to practical information. Users can navigate directly to the Event Calendar [2.0] or Vendor Directory [3.0] for discovery, while clear pathways to Become a Vendor [4.0] and Visitor Info [5.0] ensure essential details remain one click away from the Home Page [1.0].

This structure prioritizes intuitive navigation and information clarity, keeping the experience streamlined without overwhelming the user.

Created low-fidelity wireframes for both desktop and mobile to translate the sitemap into a structured, responsive layout. These early layouts focus on content hierarchy and navigation flow, ensuring key sections like the Event Calendar, Visitor Info, and Vendor Portal remain equally visible and easy to access.

The branding process focused on keeping 613Flea’s handmade, local-market personality while making the visual identity cleaner, more readable, and easier to use across web, print, social media, signage, and vendor materials.

Logo Evolution

The logo development moved from the existing handmade mark into a more flexible visual system. Each stage helped clarify how the brand could feel playful and market-friendly while becoming more scalable for responsive digital use.

Old / Current Logo

Existing Logo

The original logo had a handmade, local-market feel that matched 613Flea’s community personality. However, it was harder to scale across website layouts, signage, social media, and vendor materials because the mark was more image-based and less flexible as a brand system.

Version 1 Logo

Early Badge Direction

This version explored a circular badge style to reflect the vintage and handmade feel of the market. It felt warm and market-friendly, but the detailed stitched edge and compact layout made it less flexible at smaller sizes or in responsive digital spaces.

Chosen Direction

Final Version Logo

Final Logo System

The final logo kept the playful flea market character while improving readability and flexibility. The larger 613 strengthens recognition, while the tag-style Flea adds a marketplace feel without making the mark too busy. This direction works better across web, social, print, signage, and event materials.

Logo Variations

After choosing the final logo direction, I created supporting variations so the identity could stay consistent across different use cases, including dark backgrounds, social posts, event materials, vendor tags, and compact badge placements.

Dark Version

Dark Background Version

This version keeps the logo usable on dark layouts, posters, social graphics, and high-contrast promotional materials.

Badge Version

Badge / Stamp Version

The badge variation gives the brand a compact mark that can work for stickers, vendor tags, social icons, merch, and event materials.

Visual Language: Moodboard

To reflect the mix of creativity and community at 613Flea, the visual system blends a vintage feel with a clean, modern look.

The color palette uses Retro Teal, Muted Coral, and Cream to establish a modern-vintage aesthetic, complemented by Warm Mustard and Soft Lilac for high-contrast call-to-action moments. The typography pairs Tropical Magic as a bold heading font with Helvetica as a readable body font to support clarity across the site.

The high-fidelity designs focused on applying the finalized branding system, including approved logo variations and the established visual direction, directly into the interface layouts.

Placeholder elements were replaced with real imagery, finalized typography, and refined UI components to accurately reflect the market’s energy and personality. This phase ensured visual consistency, stronger brand integration, and a polished digital experience that aligns with a community-driven marketplace.

I ran unmoderated testing sessions to test the new layout and gave four users three key tasks. All users were able to successfully browse the site using both desktop and mobile viewports with minimal friction.

Iterations

Based on the test results, I made targeted updates to improve information visibility and make vendor discovery feel more interactive. The main changes focused on making important actions easier to notice without changing the overall visual direction.

01

Market details were made more visible

Before: The market date and location were harder to notice on the home page.

After: The specific market date and location were added directly into the high-contrast hero card in bold text.

01

Event details moved up

The next market date and location were placed directly in the hero area so users could find key information faster.

02

Stronger visual priority

The updated hero card gives the date and location more contrast, helping the information stand out at a glance.

01

→

0102

02

Vendor cards became more clearly interactive

Before: Vendor photos did not clearly communicate that users could explore a vendor profile.

After: Dedicated View Vendor buttons were added to each artisan spotlight, including Clay Play and Palm & Thread.

01

Clickable action added

View Vendor buttons made the cards feel interactive instead of just decorative.

02

Clearer discovery path

Users now have a direct path from browsing vendor images to exploring vendor details.

01

→

0102

This redesign shifts 613Flea from a simple event listing to a more engaging community hub. While the current site works as a foundation, there are clear opportunities to better connect the digital experience with the physical market.

These directions would help 613Flea grow as a stronger community platform, supporting local makers and improving the overall visitor experience.