Creator of Huge Lips, Skinny Hips Lip Gloss (at Space NK!), Karen Robinovitz takes us through the trials and tribulations of creating a beauty brand from scratch. Last week, we left our beauty heroine playing the name game. This week, she puts her new moniker -- Purple Lab -- to work...
Now all I needed was a logo and design.
My friend JD owns the most amazing creative design shop called Calliope Studios. He's done branding work and website design for Nars, John Varvatos, Kirna Zabete (my personal fashion Mecca – a.k.a. the drug den), among others. He also owns Yoya and Yoya Mart, the best baby stores you will ever see and the only place I buy baby gifts for friends. He is so inspiring.
His eye is slick, cool, sexy, and sharp. He totally gets my vibe and I knew he would be the best person to hire for our branding, website, collateral, everything...
But the man does not come cheap.
I went to his office with cupcakes and 6 years of friendship to back up my plight – please help me and don't really charge me anything because I don't have much money and I'm trying to make it big and when I do, you will be repaid!
That got me a little bit of love...
He gave me some time on the weekends and we went to town.
I showed him the things and sites that inspire me – Colette in Paris, Dita von Teese, Kate Moss, the artist Anselm Reyle (his purple foil piece sleighs me... FYI, it's 600k!), the purple Nina Ricci dress Reese Witherspoon wore to the Oscars post-divorce. We poured through font books to see what stood out.
A few days later, he came back with our brand logo, and our lip gloss logo. And I was so in love with it, I actually printed the image, shrunk it and laminated it so I could carry it in my wallet!
OUR LOGO DESIGN:
OUR LIP GLOSS LOGO DESIGN:
Our next project? The box.
My main goal was to have a box that stood out, something that would pop in a sea of products. JD sketched an hourglass shaped number and came up with the idea of the gradient purple (like that Reese Witherspoon dress I was obsessed with).
He fiddled and played and actually came up with a way to make it work. Now we just needed to find a printer who could bring it to life on a large scale, which is easier said than done. We found someone who could whip it up, but for a bit more than I was hoping for -- a few dollars per box vs the industry standard of $0.10 - $0.50. But the impression it makes was worth it to me – I would rather make less money and put something out there that gives women a fabulous emotional experience. I decided to go for it. Had to keep true to my "cut through the clutter" mantra.
Come back soon for the rest of the tale... there's A LOT more!
Mwah!
Karen
Purple Lab Creatrix