BACKGROUND
Brothers Creed Barbering Company is a barbershop based in Belleville, NJ which officially opened on July 9, 2021. After years of working for another barbershop, a local barber wanted to open up a place to call his own. With the help of investors, Brothers Creed was born.
Date | Length
Feb. 2021 - July 2021
Responsibilities
Logo creation
Branding
Web Development
Marketing Materials
Wireframes
Tools Used
Illustrator
Lightroom
Photoshop
Figma
Problem
The stakeholder needed an official website to showcase their services, link their appointment scheduling platform and Yelp reviews.
Solution
A responsive website where clients can book their appointments, view information about the services offered and contact the company. An initial meeting with the stakeholder revealed his preferences and vision on how he wants his brand, logos and website to look like.
User Research: Summary
I conducted a competitive analysis of direct competitors and discovered that most barbershops don’t have their own website. Direct competitors used a 3rd party booking software to host their business. One particular competitor used an outdated 3rd party booking software which required you to create an account in order to access barbers’ open availabilities.
Personas
Matt
Age: 32
Education: MSc. in Marketing
Occupation: Portfolio Manager
Hometown: Nutley, NJ
Matt works in a marketing firm and needs a routine haircut maintenance that’ll make him look professional and presentable.
He prefers to book his appointments in advance via the app rather than phoning in for an appointment.
Jermaine
Age: 10
Education: 5th Grade Student
Hometown: Clifton, NJ
Jermaine is a 5th grade student and needs a biweekly haircut maintenance that’ll make him look presentable in school.
He prefers to get his haircut at Brothers Creed because the staff are super friendly and always make him laugh and feel comfortable. They even put on his favorite cartoon show whenever he comes.
Logo Creation Process
After initial meeting with the stakeholder, 2 mood boards were designed which reflected the stakeholder’s preferences. The targeted demographic were men aged 25-39 who valued the way they looked and would come in for a routine haircut. The barbershop would also portray a sense of brotherhood and camaraderie.
Once a theme was established, we proceeded to move forward with logo creation. Final design was achieved after collaborating with the stakeholder.
Mood boards which reflected stakeholder's preference
Initial design was influenced by a classic logo with a modern touch. Color palettes were chosen based on the stakeholder's preference.
Another meeting with the stakeholder revealed that he wanted a cleaner, streamlined look for his logo which is reflected above.
Final design was presented to the stakeholder and was approved shortly after.
After finalizing the logo design, it was now time to build a sitemap and wireframe of the website.
Wireframing
Web Design
The user was kept in mind during web development. Booking buttons were displayed throughout via a filled in pill button for ease of use. Website’s copy was kept in a professional tone to attract mature clientele and prices were displayed for transparency. I opted for a menu style to list different services offered as it was visually appealing and easy to digest.
To view the website click here
Business Cards
The stakeholder also wanted business cards to hand out while waiting for the shop buildout, so I decided to proceed with prototyping business card layouts for stakeholder’s approval.
Different layouts of business cards. Stakeholder approved layout 4 to be printed.
Front of Card
Back of Card layout was inspired by playing around different positioning of stakeholder's name.
Photo of cards after printing.
Marketing Materials
A dedicated photo day was scheduled after shop build out to be used for marketing and website purposes. Shop build out took about 1.5 - 2months to complete. It included flooring updates, bathroom updates, shampoo bowl installation, front desk reception and window graphics printing and installation.
Final thoughts
Before moving forward with any branding project, it’s very important to set the stakeholder’s expectations and adhere to these expectations. During the early phases of this project, I would receive a call/text from the stakeholder with his ideas of the design which were in a different direction of what we had agreed on during the discovery call. I reminded him that the designs we’ve already collaborated with would be best for his brand.
Moving forward, I probably would have set boundaries on how often he can contact me or set office hours.