📕 - 2025
Sips & Tales
Hi there!
This self-led project explores the branding and social presence of a cozy indie bookstore café. I created content ideas, mock visuals, and captions to connect with a Bookstagram-style audience.
I designed a logo for Sips & Tales — and before you dive into the details, I’m adding a few photos to set the mood.
Introduction
This self-initiated project explores how branding, social content strategy, and design can work together to build a digital presence for a niche bookstore café.
The goal was to create an aesthetic, community-focused online presence to engage Bookstagram/BookTok audiences through mock posts, reels, and captions. Since I'm already part of the book community on Instagram, this felt like the right first self-led project—it allowed me to work on something I genuinely connect with and understand the audience for.
Small TMI, that’s my Bookstagram account, where I post content about books and my interests :)
Research & Inspiration
bookshop_org_uk (supports multi-indie-boosktores)
Daunt Bookstores
Target Audience
The audience for a indie bookstore could be a very broad range but I would like to focus on the bookstagram/booktok readers, could be casual or collectors, for this project.
Aesthetic Book Lovers ("Bookstagram" crowd)
🙂 Age: 18–30
📱 Platforms: Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest
📚 Interests: Fiction, fantasy, romance, dark academia
😍 Loves: Cozy reads, bookshelf aesthetics, reading nook
Digital Presence Concept
Post Content Concept
Something exciting’s brewing. ☕📚
Join us this weekend for a book signing with rising author Amara Lin and her debut novel “Letters from the Window Seat.”
🗓 Saturday | 🕒 3PM | 📍 Sips & Tales, London
Free entry. Limited signed copies. Coffee, always.
This is your official permission to “steal” a book. 📚 (Just make sure you leave one too.)
Our Take a Book, Leave a Book corner is now live — tucked by the back window, where stories meet coffee and strangers become book friends.
📖 You bring the stories. We’ll bring the vibe.
You asked. You waited. You screamed.
And now... IT. IS. HERE.
The limited edition of Shatter Me Series just hit our shelves and we’re already seeing them fly.
⚡ Bonus content
⚡ Embossed foil cover
⚡ Signed inserts
Only 50 copies in-store. First come, first claimed.
Mock Reel Script
Content Strategy
Goals
To build awareness for the bookstore and its community events.
Create an online community that mirrors the cozy, book-lover vibe of the shop.
Host author-led giveaways to attract and engage fresh followers.
Content
📚 New Releases & Special Editions – showcasing the latest drops and limited runs.
☕ Community & Events – book signings, reading corners, “take a book, leave a book” initiatives.
✨ Book Aesthetics – quotes, shelfies, cozy reading nooks, moodboards.
🎥 Reader Engagement – reels and short-form video trends, fun prompts, and interactive posts.
Posting Approach
Maintaining a steady rhythm of 3 posts and 2 reels per week to balance consistency and engagement. Stories and quick updates for more casual, polls, Q&A and behind-the-scenes moments.
Takeaways
This wasn’t a big or highly detailed project, but more of a way to show how I would approach social media if I were working with a real bookstore. It’s a simple concept, but I wanted to include it because it reflects both my love for the book community and my interest in working with bookshops or publishing houses one day.
Being part of Bookstagram already gave me a sense of how readers engage with content—through things like giveaways, aesthetic posts, and event updates. That perspective helped me shape the tone and style of this project. On the practical side, it taught me the importance of consistency, brand voice, and visual storytelling. I’m still learning the technical side of analytics, but this project was a good step in understanding how design, trends, and strategy come together to build engagement.
