Connecting salon and barbershop owners to beauty professionals to fill unused work space.
The Project
ShearShare worked side-by-side with West Agile labs to build a marketplace for salon owners and beauty professionals. While beauty industry stylists seek geographic flexibility, salon owners look to fill their unused stations. ShearShare saw the opportunity to connect the two, by creating an app where salon owners can rent their available space directly to other barbers, hairstylists, and beauty industry professionals.
My Role
As lead visual designer, I worked with our product team and development partners to create the MVP mobile app compatible for both Android and iOS platforms. I designed the full brand experience from the ground up—everything from the logo, brand identity and marketing materials, and translating the visual language to a design system that works across multiple platforms.
Deliverables
• Branding: logo, iconography, illustration, colors, iconography, typography, brand guidelines • Comprehensive design system and component library • Fully responsive, high-fidelity web-app prototypes and style guide for both iOS and Android platforms • Marketing materials: business cards, letterhead, marketing decks, etc.
• Marketing website
Design System
While creating the brand identity, I drew inspiration from old school barber shops. I settled on a dark color theme, softening it with shades of blue and gray. The geometric and industrial san serif typefaces nod to that classic style without losing that fresh and contemporary look and feel.
A full set of custom icons add a playful and personal touch to the experience.
Product
Our goal was to create an MVP that seamlessly allows beauty professionals to search available work space that caters to their specific work style, profession, and schedule. With a simple click of a button, users and switch to the “Listing” side of the platform, where users can manage mutiple listings, and schedule incoming requests from beauty professionals.
Marketing
Working closely with the client, I helped them create all ShearShare marketing materials. This included a fully responsive marketing website, presentation deck, stationary, conference signage, and t-shirts. Strong visual marketing materials helped ShearShare make a splash in the crowded startup space.
“The creative and dev teams took time to get to know us and our end goal; as a result, they were able to consistently recommend intelligent next steps that didn’t add additional cost or time drain for our MVP to be launched. They exceeded expectations and beat scheduled timeframes! We have already recommended the team to other tech entrepreneurs.”
Courtney + Tye Calwell – ShearShare Founders
Results
2016
Tech.Co Startup of the Year
2017
500 Startups accelerator program
ShearShare continues to crush it to this day with continuous accolades and award. They were recently awarded Editors' Choice for "Apps by Black Innovators" on the Google Play Store.
Press
“The app is soo user friendly. I give five stars for communication, overall process, and experience!”
Kay - App Store
“Thank you ShearShare for the amazing experience. Every step from setting up as a host on your app, to hairstylists booking my salon was a great experience. You made it smooth for both of us.”
Angela - App Store
“Love the app and how easy it is to use. Especially love that there is an option to rate hosts. I have worked in the beauty/industry for a long time and this concept is genius!”
Quemm - App Store
“Awesome app and so easy to use! As a salon owner, ShearShare helps me quickly list my empty chairs. Numerous salons have made bookings and I'm quite pleased!”
