Background

The client isn’t a businesswoman. She has never started or run a business before. She just has an idea and a little money to get it off the ground. The mission:

“To help women through heartbreak with all sorts of fabulous pick-me-ups. We’ll surprise you with chocolates, flowers, texts, emails, and our exclusive virtual gifts; we even have our own PK Life Coach to help you set new goals and a “Diva for a Day” experience where we spoil you with a fabulous, personalized photo shoot, to help mark a new chapter in your life.

At Pink Kisses, we want to change women’s lives by inspiring them to take control of their own fate and reminding them they are fabulous creatures that deserve to be spoiled… time and again.”

Identity

The first requirement was to create a new mark and stationery package for the company, which would then drive the site design. After interviewing the client, we had some basic parameters laid down:

• Black, white and pink color scheme
• Girly, but bold
• Pinups, vintage elements
• Needs to be adaptable to different “attitudes” (classy, sassy, trashy, etc)

Initial rounds:

We of course explored the obvious with a pink pair of lips just to get it out of the way (it had to be done). Everyone liked the idea of a pinup as well, but she had to be presented as empowered somehow and not a tool.

Final execution:

The pinup illustration was chosen, with the tattoo an essential element. The tattoo would be used as a giveaway/freebie in shipments, so we still needed to get it just right. The pinup (the client named her “Betty”) represents the idea of sexy and strong that the client wanted to convey. She could be shown in a variety of poses and clothing to represent the different attitudes that would make up the packages that customers could select from depending on their own personality and preferences.

Tattoo variations:

We spent a lot of time on variations of the tattoo. The problem was that it had to be legible at a fairly small size. After exhausting many, many possibilities, the client went with the one we presented in the first comp. I liked the knife in the heart.

Business card:

The round business card is intended to be memorable and distinctive. Traditional business cards didn’t seem to fit for this client. The logo is circular, so it made sense visually and there was minimal information the client wanted to include. We kept it simple.

Website

AI and Wireframes:

We worked out a flow for the site that accomplished as much of what the client wanted as possible. At this stage, the client still had not secured any partners for the products, so we weren’t completely sure what she would be selling. We knew that there would be email and text message packages, and hopefully flowers and chocolates and more, but without specific partners, we had to speculate on how the fulfillment process would work. The front end we nailed down, and selected Magento as the e-commerce platform.

Design:

By the time we started working on design comps for the site, we had a very good feel for what the client liked. I felt confident we could nail the aesthetic the first time, and we did.

The client immediately responded to this first comp. The others had merits, but this one was very well received.

This second comp was a variation of the first with a white background. It has much more of a shopping site feel. While it’s true Pink Kisses would have an e-commerce element, we didn’t want it to drive the experience. The client agreed.

The third comp has less toughness, and more girly-ness. Would have been appropriate for one of the attitudes, but not for Pink Kisses overall. The first comp was the clear winner.

Revisions:

The initial home page design (following the wireframes) had a lot of information on it. Once we started designing the other pages and building it out, we realized there was too much for a new visitor. It needed to focus on two things: explaining what Pink Kisses is, and lead them to the shopping area.

Virtual Gifts:

One of the project requirements was to come up with ideas for and build inexpensive apps (the client initially wanted iPhone apps, but once we explained the Apple’s store model, she elected to go with Flash and promote and host them on pinkkisses.com). The two gifts are Pin-up Pick-me-up, which generates a pinup poster based on selections the purchaser makes, and Kiss Him Goodbye, which burns a photo of the ex that the purchaser uploads. Below are the animated previews that the user sees before making a purchase decision.

Content:

The voice of the site is very much that of the client’s. The client wrote nearly all of the content on the site, and we edited it. We won’t take any credit for it.

Launch

We did a soft launch on June 15^th and a full launch on July 8th. Take a look at http://www.pinkkisses.com. The client has been masterful at marketing her site. She has been getting a lot of press over the last month and the site has held up well. We’ve had to make a few adjustments, but transitioning maintenance of the site to Pink Kisses (training, documentation, etc.) should be complete soon.

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