Josie Fragapane is a Montreal-based makeup artist in the beauty and cosmetics industry. She does makeup for many different occasions and is also a lash technician.
The primary platform that my client used to display her work was on Instagram. She, therefore, wanted a more professional looking place to showcase her work to hiring agencies: an online portfolio. Without a professional looking, easily accessible online portfolio, it may close the door on several job opportunities.
The site is more extensive than just a portfolio, it represents her style, her mission statement and who she is as an artist. It helps hiring agents better understand who they'll be working with. It also gives clients a better idea of what her services look like.
I was hired to design and code a website for her. But I didn't stop there. After a consultation with Josie, I realized that her entire brand was in dire need of a spruce, so I worked on establishing a strong visual identity. I created a logo for her, and shot some content for her site.
I tailored the site design to represent the feeling of authenticity that she conveys through her mission statement and tagline: Enhancing the Everyday You. I also stayed true to her logo by implementing her brand’s graphic elements throughout the site.
I started by researching some visual inspiration. I looked for makeup looks that were similar to the makeup artist's style. I also gathered extra imagery that I felt encapsulated the sophisticated and feminine qualities behind the brand after speaking with my client. I noticed that a lot of the makeup looks contained a soft pink tone. I then created a moodboard.
I chose a rose blush pink colour to fit the light pink/neutral tone to a lot of her makeup looks, a very dark grey colour to represent sophistication and elegance behind her brand, and and off-white colour to represent simplicity and minimalism found in her makeup looks.
I started by sketching logo variations that represent the sleek and elegant feel behind the brand. However, I knew I also wanted to add an element of playfulness and authenticity to the logo to be inline with the company's mission statement: Enhancing the Everyday You. I then created wireframes to map a general layout for the site, keeping in mind that the client's portfolio needed to be easy to find and that she was easy to reach.
I attended the wedding prep of one of Josie's clients, and captured some compelling shots of her doing the bridal party's makeup. I then knit the shots together and played around with time-remapping to make a visually interesting header video to play as soon as customers enter the site.
I started by coding the bare HTML of the site to order all the elements of the page. Then, based off of my wireframes, I coded the CSS to stylize the pages. Lastly, I used JavaScript to create aimations, button interactions and page transitions. Simultaneously, I created many variations of the vector logos, using different typefaces and creating different monograms using the first letters of my client's first and last name. The last part of branding her site was conducting a focus group to figure out which logo was more attractive to people who fall under her target demoraphic (and of course, I took into great consideration whichever logo my client loved).
"Chelsea was so friendly and easy to work with. She gave me the most information, answered quickly and gave me a lot of insight. She worked very hard on the logo and my website and I was very pleased with her work. I was blown away with how she was so available and helpful building my website. She even offered to come to one of my big bridal weddings, to watch and take videos of me working."