The Process
Somebody asked me the other day, "how did you get into making lip stuff? Did you have a background in chemistry?"; no background in chemistry, but there was a process that took place and time to develop. I hadn't realized until the question was asked, that the process I learned in school is something of a similar nature.
While studying Graphic Design way back when, our class would be given a brief with a single sentence like, "Gravity, define what it means to you". That's a big place to start from. And how can one word that can encompass so many things be represented to explain what it is. Our teachers were strict and in the end wanted to see our process, meaning lots of sketchbooks filled with ideas, paint, letterpress, abstract drawings, installations, experiments. At many times I found this frustrating, since it seemed as though they only cared about all the above and not the final piece, that would be more often than not an automatic fail if generated from a computer.
In my mind I would think, what firm in town will hire a graduate from this program who doesn't have any computer skills, or have the ability to complete a job without piles of sketchbooks (which take time - time that isn't always available when under a crunch). I did end up graduating, and I did work with firms and companies that always seemed to be racing against the clock. We didn't have the time to do lots of research, and we were expected to churn out designs and projects quickly. Over time this became less and less appealing, and in some ways empty.
The decision to create a lip product, came out of a mere coincidence and curiosity. I'd set a personal timeline of 1 year...it did take 2, and looking back there were several stages involved for each piece in the making of ILIA. The logo started out as a cursive, screen printed onto a pink (yes, you heard correctly) lipstick tube, that looked like it came out of an old Strawberry Shortcake greeting card. Several tubes followed, from larger sizes to smaller, copper, brown and silver finishes with various logo's auditioning for their place. The colours for the lip conditioners began with 12 shades, and eventually narrowed down to 6. The printing and marketing pieces where of course of utmost importance. It took months to find the right letterpress company who were able to print ink in the same silver/gold colour as the lipstick tubes. Aardvark Letterpress in L.A has an amazing selection of stock inks, and yes, they had an exact match called Platinum Blonde.
In the end, its tough to say everything turned exactly the way it was supposed to (for us designers, it never usually reaches a 10 out 10), but it's certain to say that taking the time to explore, and learn some new virtues of patience paid off. Would I do it the same way again? Most definitely.
