A New Paradigm in Salon Services
The Challenge
How do you introduce an all-new salon concept for both artists and clients in an industry that is both heavily saturated and established?
The Approach
Create a bold, modernized brand that pitches the concept as a new, fresh take on the salon experience that clearly identifies and addresses the issues to the advantage of clients and artists.
Shifting the Expectation
Long-time clients and hair experts at Salon San Carlos came to us with a new salon concept. What if there was a salon where both clients and stylists could choose their own hours? What if the salon embraced an hourly pricing structure to eliminate surprises and confusion? And what if that same salon wasn’t a traditional salon, allowing artists to come and go as they please, running their own schedule and managing their clients independently all with the support and opportunities of the traditional salon environment?
It may have sounded too good to be true, but we saw the vision from the start. The salon industry has been steadfastly addressing decades of traditions that just don’t make sense for the modern hair artist. People want flexibility in their schedules. They don’t want to feel tied down to expensive booth rentals and watch money fly out of their hands from high commission splits with owners. Many hair stylists want to go independent, but the fear of running a business on their own keeps them tethered to what they know.
Paradigm Hair Collective aimed to give artists all of the freedom and flexibility they crave as a solo practitioner with the business support they need from a traditional salon. It also wanted to give their clients an abundance of options. From allowing clients to work directly with their stylist for after-hours time slots and pay-by-the-hour pricing, the goal was to make the salon an overall better experience for everyone.
We tapped into what we already knew during our branding experience with Salon San Carlos and worked directly with the Paradigm team to develop a brand identity that could introduce a game-changing concept to the Pensacola community.
We got in a room with the key stakeholders for Paradigm Hair Collective to dig into the details and find the value propositions for this new concept. It was important for us to be able to make a clear distinction between what we learned during the brand process with Salon San Carlos and what they were planning for Paradigm because these two concepts were very different.
During our initial session, right away we realized why they settled on the name Paradigm Hair Collective. The concept was truly attempting to shift the way people approach hair appointments on both sides of the fence.
We also agreed that this brand had to be both bold and modern. If we are going to introduce a concept like this, it has to be able to grab your attention and sell you on it without being confusing. Both clients and stylists are creatures of habit. If they were going to make the jump, it had to be for a good reason. We had our marching orders, so we got to work.
Through our first discovery session, we identified the problems that most stylists go through in their careers. The problems ranged from high costs of inventory and unfair commissions rates to expensive booth rentals and feelings of being undervalued as an artist. More than anything, the concept was being introduced as a way for stylists to make more money and grind less with smart pricing and less overhead.
In our marketing headlines, we had to make sure we spoke directly to these problems and make our solution loud and clear. Whether they ended up on a billboard or digital ads, they needed to connect.
We identified two major audiences: stylists and potential clients. This led us to create three buckets of headlines: culture + experience, recruiting, and external.
Culture + Experience
- A full spectrum of services.
- Join the new Paradigm.
- Shifting the expectation.
- Make the shift from stylist to artist.
- It’s your time. Paradigm.
- Redefining artistry.
- The standard has shifted.
- A new class of artists.
- Her chair. His chair. Their chair. Your chair.
- Embrace a new Paradigm.
Recruiting
- Book clients when you want.
- Say ‘goodbye’ to booth rent.
- Your hair care career on your time.
- Grow your career with a team.
- Shifting the expectation of hair care career success.
- Earn more. Work less. Paradigm.
- Join a sustainable hair care network.
- Go hourly. Paradigm.
- You’ve built your hair career. Now, make it yours.
- Burn the midnight foil. Book on your schedule, not ours.
- Don’t pay for the empty suite.
- Break free from booth rent.
- Put an end to the hustle with effective pricing.
- Grind less. Make More.
- Open door policy for all artists.
- Tired of managing more cash without more profits?
- You’re not a hairdresser. You’re an artist. Make the shift.
- Be part of the Paradigm shift.
- Solving pain points by empowering artists.
External
- Paradigm. Shift to conscious hair care.
- Simple pricing. Effortless booking.
- Genderless. Gratuity-free. Cash-free.
- The anytime hair care spot.
- Worry-free, gratuity-free services.
- Sustainable products. Sustainable practices.
- No surprises with time-based hair care.
No brand is complete without a visual system to show what the messaging tells. With Paradigm Hair Collective, we set out to create an entire suite of visuals, including a one-of-a-kind logo, fonts, colors, creative assets, and even photography guidelines.
Logo
The logo had to do more than just act as a mark on collateral and a sign outside. It needed to be intentional with a strong, conceptual foundation. We landed on the “P” for “Paradigm” with a recognizable shift to represent the impact and change they aim to make in the hair industry.
To ensure the logo was easily deployable in a variety of scenarios, we delivered modular options, including a full main logo, a simple icon, and a stacked version when space is at a premium. Additionally, we added a vibrant, full-color gradient version to continue invoking that feeling of continuous shifting and changing.
Colors
We wanted a color palette that could be equal parts bold and modern. The final decisions paired bright neons with warm natural tones that added layers of contrast to the website, social skins, and other designed collateral.
Assets
It was critical to make sure the Paradigm Hair Collective team had a treasure chest loaded with interesting visual assets to use on all of their designed materials. This included a bundle of circle and spiral shapes with fun patterns that give you a sense of constant movement and change throughout all of their branded design.
With a new brand set, it was time to put it all together on a website. As a new business, the Paradigm Hair Collective team was starting from square one. This gave us endless opportunities to play with all of our new assets to get them started with a bang. We worked with the team to create all of the website copy, page design, and developed the entire site to be a captivating, functioning lead magnet for incoming artists and clients. Everything was built on WordPress to allow the client to make easy, on-the-fly updates and additions long after we handed off.
View full site here.
Although the business was in its earliest stages, we couldn’t resist getting them started with branded collateral. The highest priority needed out of the gate was a business card design so that the team could start introducing the brand to potential clients and artists. Beyond that, we put together a couple of branded tote bag options to leave a lasting impression during the impending open house events and networking sessions.
