Mint
Overview
Mint is an e-commerce based cosmetics company I launched in the Fall of 2012. It started as a creative outlet and supplemental income stream, but grew to become my full-time focus less than 2 years after launch. Running a lean company by myself gave me a profound respect for fellow entrepreneurs and business owners. It also introduced me to the power of user experience-based design. In 2015 I sold the brand to an ecommerce-based health and wellness conglomerate.
Logo
The product was simple: professional grade nail polish, modern pigment-packed colors and perfume style packaging. The logo was clean and minimalistic to match the brand's modern, high end aesthetic.
Motto / Tag Line
All Mint nail lacquers were 100% carcinogenic free (made without the cancer-causing chemicals found in many other brands). Mint's motto was simple, friendly and focused on the quality of the product.
Product Design
Perfume bottles are pretty enough to leave on display, why can't nail polish bottles be as well? This question shaped my approach to designing Mint's physical product. The formula itself was professional grade with a higher than normal ratio of pigment to polish, and I wanted to make sure that the exterior product conveyed this superiority as well. The all glass bottle felt heavier in the hand than lower grade plastic, and the brushed aluminum caps were cool to the touch and added to the overall sleek appearance.
Packaging Design
Packaging design is so rewarding because it is a relatively easy and inexpensive way to significantly enhance the look and feel of a product. I used Adobe Illustrator for all of my designs.
Social Presence
Social media was a game changer for Mint. By mid-2013, the majority of the web referrals to the site were from mobile devices. Most came from the link on the company's Instagram account (we grew to 20k+ followers in 2014). I saw social media as free advertising and made sure the each photo was curated according to the look and feel of the brand. All photos by me, on my iPhone :)
