Welcome to a world where creativity meets strategy.
I’m Efe Can Akar, a seasoned multidisciplinary designer with over a decade of experience transforming ideas into visual stories that resonate. From global brands to local innovators, I have empowered businesses with design that speaks, sells, and stands out.
My work is where philosophy meets artistry—each project is a balance of thought, style, and purpose. With expertise in brand development, creative direction, and visual storytelling, I turn visions into impactful visuals.
Explore my journey, witness my craft, and let’s create something extraordinary together.
Featured Projects
A selection of projects that define my creative journey. From brand transformations to captivating visuals, each project showcases my commitment to design excellence and storytelling.
Pin Drinks
Packaging Design
Pin Drinks, a beverage brand, aimed to position itself as a healthy alternative beverage, driven by its product ingredients and market demand. In response to these objectives, they not only developed new products with healthier compositions but also sought to effectively communicate this perception to consumers. At this point, I joined forces with their marketing team to initiate a comprehensive rebranding project. Together, we rebuilt the brand from scratch, covering areas such as logos, slogans, and target audiences, while meticulously identifying and avoiding past mistakes.
One of the most critical aspects of this rebranding process was the packaging design, which I personally handled independently. These designs received significant acclaim and interest. My primary focus during the design process was twofold: ensuring that the products stood out on shelves against competitors and embedding subconscious cues of health, purity, and cleanliness in consumers’ minds. The predominantly white background colors effectively conveyed these values. However, I also needed to prevent the products from being perceived as medicines or dairy items. At this point, the vibrant colors of the fruits used in the products came to my aid. By incorporating these colors into vector art on a plain white background, I was able to position the products exactly where the brand envisioned.
Donut Worry Be Happy
Outdoor Advertising
This billboard design I created for Donut Worry Be Happy, part of an outdoor advertising campaign, is a prime example of cross-marketing. Although the brand entered the Turkish market later than its competitors, it aimed to target a broad audience and integrate itself into a more active lifestyle. Despite their late entry, the brand’s marketing team had a solid understanding of target audience dynamics. They recognized that leveraging the strong demand for coffee among younger generations would be a strategic move. As a result, they requested a cross-promotion featuring their product, donuts, alongside lattes — one of the most popular beverages among young people in Turkey in recent years.
In response, I opted for a soft gradient background to subtly hint at the smooth taste of a latte. To add a sense of dynamism to the overall visual without overwhelming it, I incorporated coffee beans around the donuts, ensuring a balanced and engaging design.
Moodmoji App
UI/UX Design
When the founders of MoodMoji approached me, they envisioned a playful mobile app that allowed users to express their emotions through customizable emoji avatars. However, their initial design concept lacked both emotional engagement and intuitive interaction. Understanding the importance of a user-centric experience, I restructured the app’s user flow, making mood selection and avatar customization effortlessly enjoyable. By introducing a vibrant color palette and rounded UI elements, I ensured the app felt welcoming yet visually dynamic, striking a balance between youthful energy and user clarity.
In addition to reworking the design, I enhanced the social feed’s functionality, transforming it into an interactive space where users could share their moods and engage with friends through lightweight interactions like “relate,” “send vibes,” and “recommend a song.” I also optimized the design for various device sizes, maintaining accessibility without sacrificing the app’s playful aesthetic. The final product was a visually captivating, emotionally engaging application that seamlessly blended creative UI design with an intuitive UX, perfectly capturing the founders’ vision while elevating it with my design expertise.
Illustration
for NFT Collection
This NFT artwork, which I designed for personal purposes, is part of a collection. The character design, named Carmelo, is one of the pieces in my NFT collection. Positioned within a style reminiscent of the cyberpunk theme, Carmelo embraces futuristic elements, yet it cannot be strictly classified as a cyberpunk creation. As an entirely original design, this character has strong potential to appeal to the gaming world.
The character illustration was fully created in Adobe Illustrator, while the frame in which it is placed was designed using Adobe After Effects.
Digital Works
An immersive showcase of my digital expertise—spanning illustrations, UI/UX designs, social media visuals, ad creatives, and motion design. Here, creativity and technology merge to create impactful digital experiences.
Ad Creatives
I have provided ad creative services to numerous renowned brands, including Migros, La Lorraine Bakery Group, and British Petroleum (BP). Throughout these collaborations, I gained invaluable insights into diverse industries, each with its own unique target audience and marketing dynamics. Working with such a wide array of brands allowed me to sharpen my creative skills, adapt to various brand voices, and develop a profound understanding of strategic advertising. Each experience added to my expertise in crafting compelling visuals and messages that resonate with consumers. This cumulative growth has consistently propelled me forward in my professional journey, transforming challenges into opportunities for creative excellence.
User Interface and User Experience
(UI/UX) Design
Social Media Design
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Video & Motion Design
Illustration
Print Works
A curated collection of print designs—featuring outdoor advertising, retail/POP materials, brand identities, and packaging designs. These works reflect my ability to transform brands into tangible, memorable experiences.
Packaging Design
I am proud to present my design work for Pin Drinks, which includes a total of 10 bottle label and packaging designs. These designs feature labels for various product lines: Hibiscus Tea (1L PET bottle, 250ml glass bottle, and 250ml aluminum can), Orange Mango (1L PET bottle, 250ml glass bottle, and 250ml aluminum can), Cool Lime (1L PET bottle, 250ml glass bottle, and 250ml aluminum can), and Winter Tea (250ml glass bottle). Among these, my three aluminum can designs have been nominated for The Canmaker - Cans of The Year ’24 competition, an esteemed global contest with entries from hundreds of brands. This nomination was a delightful surprise facilitated by Crown Holding Inc., the world leader in its sector. My signature designs are currently enjoyed by consumers across Europe, Africa, and Asia.
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Brand Identity
Outdoor Advertising
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Retail/POP Materials
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Artificial Intelligence Works
Exploring the intersection of creativity and technology. From generative design to AI-powered visual solutions, these works showcase how I harness artificial intelligence to enhance and elevate creative possibilities.
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This project, which you see here, was proposed to the Black Bruin brand as an initiative for entering the then-trending NFT space. However, it remained at the presentation stage and was never executed. The bear illustrations, representing the brand’s symbol, were initially generated using the Midjourney AI. Since this was during the early days of Midjourney, the generated visuals were further processed using another AI tool, Vector AI, to convert them into vector format. Subsequently, these vectors were refined in Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe Photoshop was utilized to create the mockups.
In this project, you are viewing the AI-generated visuals I created for the product catalog of Petipure, a pet brand for which I handled the branding process. Initially, I designed 2D animal characters for Petipure’s packaging. Using the DALL-E AI, I transformed these 2D designs into 3D visuals, turning them into representative heroes/mascots featured throughout the product catalog. After obtaining the visuals from DALL-E, I used Adobe Photoshop to fix any imperfections in the characters and then finalized their placement within the catalog using Adobe InDesign.
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Contact
Thank you for taking the time to review my portfolio. For business and collaboration opportunities, please feel free to reach out to me using the contact information provided below.