EGD: Paradise Beauty Lounge Nail Salon

April 23, 2023 Michelle Killmer

Last year, Lash Paradise Beauty Lounge began transitioning to a more concise name, Paradise Beauty Lounge, in anticipation of the grand opening for the lash salon side that opened in 2020 and the nail salon which opened in 2022. While the name isn’t finalized due to some further research and needing to be done to make it happen, the name is appearing in different places online and in print.

Recently, Torianna Paradise, the owner/operator of Lash Paradise/Paradise Beauty Lounge, approached me and asked me to revise the signage we did for them to reflect the expansion of the lash salon to include the nail salon.

Below are the install photos from what we did. The nail salon windows had the same treatment as the lash salon side, right next door, and the listing of the main services were included in the building and pylon signs.

If you’re looking to make an appointment to get your lashes, nails, or brows done, visit their website to book an appointment!

Design Quickie: Make it POP!

September 21, 2020 Michelle Killmer

EDIT: Stickers are now available for purchase!

A running joke between creatives is how clients, who are not well-versed in designer vernacular, will often try to overdescribe what they want as compensation for not knowing how.

Other times, they’ll use power or action words in lieu of what we would use.

The most popular is, “Make it POP!”, sometimes phrased as a question, “Can you make it pop?”

To celebrate this, I made a sticker design for today’s design quickie.

The one on the left was my first draft, but to simplify it and make it a little easier on the eyes, I turned it into the one on the right. Both are annoying, just not equally. Trying to decide if I’ll turn this into a sticker. (You’ll be the first ones to know when and if I do.)

Media Kit: The Phillyfoodaholic

August 4, 2020 Michelle Killmer

Meet Alyssa Laufer, AKA the Phillyfoodaholic (@phillyfoodaholic). She kept her social media presence as a food critic a secret (not really, it just never came up) with our newly formed friend group for a while. When she let it slip that she managed an Instagram that had over 1600 followers and was the reason she was able to try a lot of varying foods throughout Philadelphia, we all immediately followed her for support (and to drool during and after class).

Crest Mobile Truck & Movie Night

September 23, 2019 Michelle Killmer

The original event’s logo, circa 2018

This year’s new logo. Same color palette, main elements and location, different name and additional elements.

Back in May I got an email from my dear friend Liz for an “update” to the Crest Sunset Fest logo I designed last year. It read, ‘The Sunset Fest Logo needs to be changed to "crest mobile truck and movie night’“

OK. After a few texts and emails back and forth and a much needed phone call (this logo was one of three things she needed), it was decided that all that needed to change was the name.

However, thinking of the name. “Crest Mobile Truck and Movie Night”, I couldn’t get over how long it was. I played with it as one line, stacked into two, adding words in different spots and it just wasn’t working.

“Liz,” I said one day, “the name’s too long.” She said she’d look at it and see if they could shorten it. Due to crazy schedules for both of us, we both forgot and I ended up just using the name as is, again pushing things around on the screen to see how it would look.

Eventually, I decided to ditch the thick rule lines in favor of only sealing in the bottom of the half sun and played with the idea of movie themed elements.

The color palette leaves a lot to be desired, but Liz and her husband were happy with the result (bottom) and it was used for the event and all its collateral.

Event Facebook

Emchi Social Media

September 21, 2019 Michelle Killmer

While driving through town one day, my boyfriend and I noticed a new nail salon had opened up. From the outside, it looked big, well-lit and really nice. The following weekend, I made an appointment.

Walking in, I was impressed—the color theme inside was pristine white, black and crystal. They looked to be full-service - hair, nails, makeup, the works! Every nail station was occupied, and a good number of the massage chairs for pedicures had a content customer seated, receiving their seemingly much needed ped pampering session.

A few minutes after signing in for my appointment, I was called to a station where I met one of the co-owners, named Peter, who was also happy working in the salon as a nail tech. After talking with him for a little bit, he learned that I’m half Vietnamese and could speak broken Viet. He, elated with this situation, began telling everyone around him about me and a relationship was formed. One of my appointments, sadly was not with Peter, but with a woman named Nicole with whom I would soon develop a different relationship—a working relationship.

Peter, his wife, and Nicole were working on a very important project: their own line of dip powder, a new, but popular, product in nail salons. They needed a designer to help with social media ads to promote Emchi (Vietnamese for little sister). In talking with Nicole, I told her what I did for a living and she asked for my phone number. I left her with a personal business card and from there we took off.

I designed the ads for every demo day, holiday, trade show, convention and anything they needed visual content for. These layouts went on their Instagram and Facebook to alert people of what, when, and where and it seemed to work for them because they kept emailing me back.