Red Pepper Flakes. A blog by Imelda Suriato

Beauty brands online: Summer 2010 #2

Lancôme—YouTube Beauty Guru Michelle Phan

Lancôme was smart to tap Michelle Phan as its video makeup artist in February. The 22-year-old art school student is a YouTube sensation—she’s the most subscribed beauty guru with over 200M views and 800K subscribers.

To keep her inspired, Lancôme sent Michelle to Paris for 4 days, visiting historic sites from Notre Dame to The Pont des Arts where Kate Winslet filmed the signature Trésor commercial, as well as the Lancôme Institute. Her Paris journey is recorded in Lancôme’s Facebook “Michelle + Paris” app.

Even though she’s only 6 months into her 2-year contract, her YouTube video views already doubled and she keeps on garnering buzz: This week, she is featured by T, The New York Times Style Magazine, for which she created an exclusive video titled “Futuristic Look.”

p.s.: Did you know she was turned down for a job working behind the counter at a department store for Lancôme? I bet she’s doing OK now.

Bobbi Brown—Pretty Powerful Follow-up

Bobbi Brown captured many in NYC with its Pretty Powerful campaign which was unveiled in May, from print ads to commercials in and on yellow cabs to 5-minute makeovers in their beauty counters. The campaign showcases real women and was kicked off through a video contest in January with public voting in March. For every vote cast in, Bobbi Brown donated $1 to one of Bobbi’s causes, Dress for Success, an organization that provides disadvantaged women with interview suits and career development advice.

While on my usual browse-mode, I went back to the website and noticed its been jazzed up a little. The Pretty Powerful winners now have a “Get The Look” section on a larger page format. The Beauty Buzz section looks like a news bulletin (albeit one from a very nice design firm) with a strong personal feel, especially in Bobbi ‘s Story.

On the other hand, the Learn section has an educational feel of a makeup artist class, where instructions are laid out in a very visual way and the products look almost touchable. The design “Botox” (like they say: You, but better) works for me; I found myself browsing the site more than I usually do.

Maybelline New York—The French Revolution

Gemey Maybelline, the French site for Maybelline New York, offers a lot more features I found interesting compared to the US site. On the mobile front, there are Makeup Studio Mobile app, a virtual makeup studio, and Studio Manucure (aka Manicure Studio) iPhone app which shows you the secrets to a perfect manicure, from selecting the right nail polish to nail care solutions.

In addition, there is WeLoveMakeup.com, an online community of more than 20K “Make Up Addicts” sharing thousands of looks and discussion topics. It’s like Facebook for makeup artists and beauty enthusiasts to connect, learn, share, and even have Make Up Parties.

Its Blog in The City features three personalities: Capucine (a makeup addict), Emily (a fashionista) and Flo (for NY looks & trends). The blog is young, fun and informational, the topic ranges from summer frocks ala The Sartorialist to Magnolia Bakery. I even learned that there is such a thing called a trikini. Who knew?

Meanwhile, Maybelline’s US site has the Runway VIP Sweeps and Maybelline Loves Fashion microsite to support Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in September. You can find videos and instructions on how to get the look, plus a mini NYC guide if you are here in New York during Fashion Week.

The microsite could be a lot better. It’s just not up to par with what you’d expect out of an official sponsor of Fashion Week.

Chanel—Rouge Coco

Chanel launched its Rouge Coco campaign this spring, featuring French actress / singer Vanessa Paradis. I like the Facebook effort, where you can share virtual Coco Rouge buttons (a la the press kit / swag bag that was sent out in December) by posting them on your wall. Unfortunately, once the reveal period was over, the buttons are gone.

I like that you can browse all the lipstick shades within the Facebook tab but when you click to “Shop Now”, the color you were reviewing didn’t carry through to the e-commerce site. You can see the color name in the URLstring, but you have to reselect the color from the dropdown.

This is too bad because the e-store interface is nicer than a lot of other beauty brands and because the Chanel site is gorgeous with its simple typography, clean layout and stunning photography.

Related post: Beauty brands online: Summer 2010 #1

Beauty brands online: Summer 2010 #1

Revlon—Modern Glamour: Runway Looks to Virtual Makeover

When Squeaky first nabbed the Revlon digital account, we are excited because we were not only working with a global brand with its world-famous ambassadors (i.e. Halle Berry, Jessica Biel, Jessica Alba), we were also presented with a challenging task for a total site re-engineering. So we brought in the glitz of fashion and celebrity, and the technology of virtual makeover.

Tapping into the star power of Revlon’s Global Artistic Director, Gucci Westman, we added behind-the-scenes Fashion Week runway and get-the-look videos into the Beauty Lounge section. From Oscar de la Renta to Rag & Bone, you get all the inside tips & tricks directly from the superstar makeup artist herself.

When we were asked to recommend a virtual makeover engine for Revlon, we did a thorough review of two of the most prominent virtual makeover software available in the market: Daily Makeover & Taaz.* Squeaky’s final recommendation for Revlon’s Virtual Makeup Artist™ is to use Taaz because it allows for a more sophisticated application with very subtle sheerness for glosses, shadows and color hues.

For example, mascara application lengthens the lashes when the amount is increased while on DailyMakeover, the mascara only becomes thicker at the base. In addition, Taaz provides options for types of top and bottom lashes while DailyMakeover only provides Top, Top & Bottom and Bottom. We really like that Taaz’s makeover preview area is much larger than DailyMakeovers. The model’s photos are also more natural with visible blemishes, providing Revlon with real makeover experience as complexion improves upon sheer application of foundation, concealer and blushes.

Other beauty brands that also utilizes Taaz’s virtual makeover engine are Estée Lauder and just recently, TopShop.

Estée Lauder—Let’s Play Makeover

One of the main draw of Estée Lauder’s Virtual Makeover is the use of Hilary Rhoda, the brand’s face since 2007, as the model for you to play with. Everyone would look gorgeous with those blue eyes.

Unfortunately, the “1-Click Look” feature only has one look at a time, while Revlon’s “Get The Look” has seven looks from their ambassadors to choose from.

TopShop Make Up—Virtual Makeover

While TopShop‘s has four looks to choose and three models to play with—if you don’t feel like uploading your own photo, Revlon has six models with wider complexion range to choose from. On top of that, since Revlon has Hair Color products, the Virtual Makeup Artist lets you choose hair color and styles you like to best complete your look.

We continuously think about new ways to improve the Revlon site, including the Virtual Makeup Artist, and believe me when I say we are brimming with exciting ideas. So stay tuned!

Up next is Part 2: From Lancôme’s YouTube sensation, Michelle Phan, to Bobbi Brown’s Pretty Powerful and Chanel’s Coco Rouge

*The review was performed on September 2009.

Automotive brands online: Summer 2010

Renault—The Mégane Experiment: “Can a car change a town?”

The premise: In 2010 Renault discovered a set of fascinating statistics. According to the figures, towns with more Mégane were happier, had higher rates of fertility and longer life expectancies. To put this theory to the test, they’ve sent Claude, a ‘consultant de joie’ to Gisburn (Lancashire), a town with no Méganes and apparently very little joie de vivre, to conduct ‘The Mégane Experiment‘.

Done by Publicis, the Renault UK campaign takes a light-hearted Anglo-French cultural comparison of the two distinct villages, basically telling the people of Gisburn that their town and people are crap and they need to do something. Watch Claude, the self-proclaimed “joie de vivre” expert, as he attempts to educate the people of Gisburn on the subject and introduces the Mégane car model as the thing that can bring joy to the city.

The Mégane Experiment‘ is hilarious in a French Borat kind of way.

Volkswagen—Anyone for a Sunday Drive?

Volkswagen Canada resurrects the oft-forgotten Sunday drive. The campaign for the new VW Golf by Red Urban asks what happened to the spirit of of the Sunday drive. “Anyone for a Sunday Drive?” campaign is true to the Volkswagen spirit: Cheeky, fun-to-drive aspects of VW. It’s for people who don’t just drive to go from Point A to Point B; It’s for people who simply love to drive.

Don’t forget to go to Remix Road and have fun—‘S Wonderful, ‘S Marvelous is definitely in my head now!

Note: I didn’t see this anywhere on the site, but supposedly Canadians also have the opportunity to record their own Sunday driving experiences and share them online.

Ford Fiesta—The Fiesta Project

Ford Fiesta kicks up the summer with The Fiesta Project where they asked real people to come up creative ways to put the new 2011 Fiesta to the test. Interesting videos are then shot, from “Fiesta vs. Lamborghini” to “Dawn of The New Key Fob.”

Because there are no direct sales pitch per se and that “How Much Can It Bear?” has a touch of Super Troopers spirit, this one stands out in my book.

Jeep—The Things We Make, Make Us.

Jeep has been allover television and the web lately with its “The Things We Make, Make Us” campaign for Grand Cherokee. The slight note of propaganda takes you to a journey through American industrialism, patriotism and everyday hard-working people. It’s not war propaganda, it’s a propaganda of America’s manufacturing prowess.

I like the tone, the big, bold typography, the video and the clanking in the music. It reinforces the manifesto: “Our newest son was imagined, drawn, stamped, hewn and forged here.” This 2011 Grand Cherokee is 100% American, and I like it.

KIA Sportage—What’s Your Sportage Style?

KIA Sportage adds a little Facebook chatter to their web presence, starting from a simple tab on Facebook that invites you to experience and share your Sportage 360° thoughts to a sleek Flash microsite with nice scene building, extreme close-ups of features and an FB Chatter page.

Sadly, not that many people join in the chatter.

Other notables:

Volvo—Naughty S60: Microsite and on Facebook asking “Which City is the Naughty Capital of Europe?”

Toyota Camry—Autobiography: Strong Facebook presence to support TV buy. Facebook application allows you to tell your Toyota Story and upload your video.

A. Sauvage: This is Not a Suit

I’m really liking Adrien Sauvage‘s take on his look book. As his first collection of suits is being praised due to its mix of modern styles and Saville Row-level cuts, I’m more drawn into the black-and-white look book.

Called This is Not a Suit, the look book showcases Sauvage’s creative talent and artistic vision, in which he cast and personally photographed some of art and music’s finest as models for his debut collection. The Tumblr site appropriately offers a simple presentation of the subject, the artistic landscape and the photography, which I really think is brilliant.

A side note on his collection: No logos or insignias—which I love. Basically, nothing gets in the way of the suit’s subtly smooth air and crisp appearance. The only nod to his name is an A. Sauvage label on the interior of the jacket with a short info of its origin along with notes about its inspiration.

That’s a touch of class, indeed.

Found via Cool Hunting.

Glorious! Soups: Super alphabet soup

Glorious! Soups® packaging caught my eyes when browsing through I Love Dust‘s portfolio. Beautiful illustration and typographic approach sets this packaging apart. Glorious! Soups® takes alphabet soup to another level.

Glorious! Soups®‘s simple black site allows the letters of the alphabet—an ‘A to Z of Global Flavors’—prominently displayed. Iconic, bespoke illustration represents each letter, showcasing authentic global influences and flavors of each product. The illustration is well done (if you know I Love Dust’s work, it’s not surprising at all).

“We wanted to build brand that was bold, adventurous and gutsy to inspire people to try out the new product, ” explains Mandy Taylor, commercial director at Glorious!. Working with Glorious!’s branding agency, Lambie-Nairn, I Love Dust has successfully delivered just that.

The new Glorious! Soups is bold yet eloquent, bringing some ‘zing’ to boring ol’ soups and sauces. It’s simply stunning—both the concept and the design.

How can you not love “M is for ‘Malaysian Chicken’” with delicate Asian flower motif while “T is for ‘Toulouse Sausage and Bean’” and is flanked by legs of can-can dancer?

Roots x Douglas Coupland

The RootxDouglasCoupland clothing line, a collaboration between Douglas Coupland (the author of the bestseller Generation X) and Roots (the Canadian clothing company), finally unveiled in stores yesterday.

I heard about this collaboration through the grapevine a.k.a Twitter and I straightaway thought, oh no, what’s a literary doing with a clothing brand? But then I remembered that he’s also an artist, screenplay writer and producer. His ability to capture our techno-pop-culture extends to his art, where he explores and corrupts dimensions of pop culture and pop art. Andy Warhol’s his favorite study.

The collaboration with Roots features not just clothing, but art installations, sculpture, custom designed art and retail spaces. The RootxDouglasCoupland website is projects Coupland’s aesthetic very strongly –TV test pattern, pixilated objects and punch-card dots to name a few. The warping mouse-over effect that is suspiciously very Yugo Nakamura (remember his Wonderwall?).

To be honest, the pieces are fantastic. Look at these Test Pattern Armwarmers! That’s going into my closet.

When interviewed by Steven Heller, Coupland explained that his Roots clothing line as more of an art/design experiment, part of his exploring new ways of perceiving “being Canadian.” A friend suggested he collaborated with Roots as part of that exploration and he thought “it was a good idea, and wonderfully free of cynicism.”

Coupland also loves Penguin (the Canadian publishing house, not the bird) for their cutting edge worthiness and dutiful minimalism. He’s speaking about the covers and he’s not just saying. For Penguin’s 75^th Anniversary in March, he created Speaking of The Past, celebrating the publishing house with invitation for fans to design their own Penguin covers as well as showcasing the various original templates used from 1935-1963.

His devotion to their simplistic design lines was strongly expressed in this little autobiographical paragraph:

Last month I installed new bookshelves in a room in my house. They’re black, and my painter offered the unsolicited opinion that they might look depressing when completed. I knew he was wrong because, at the very least, the paperback shelf couldn’t help but have a cheerful orange zing a zing that comes from the Penguin spine, the most wonderfully insidious default interior design statement in our culture. Even crack dens glow with Penguins on the shelf.

That, in my opinion, is lovely. What a statement of devotion.

You have to admit, Douglas Coupland is one hell of a creative and productive human being. How inspiring.

Burberry Eyewear: Swiveling heads

Burberry shows its Eyewear in a enticing way on Facebook. It caught me by surprise because this unassuming tab looks just like any other nice-photo-of-beautiful-models-wearing-merchandise interface. But then I mouse-over the model and — EEEK!! — her head swivels following my cursor! No, I’m not making this up. It freaked me out for a sec!

Browse all the models here and see how smoothly the interaction is. It could still be a bit better (yeah, I don’t like all the pre-loader either) but it’s a totally cool way of showcasing the eyewear: On actual persons, on pretty much every angle that matters. Superbly done!

So….ccer Crazy!

World Cup 2010 is feverishly descending allover the web. Checkout PUMAcity coming to South Street Seaport — June 11 to July 11. Then we have Louis Vuitton Journeys with soccer’s legendary greats: Pelé, Maradona and Zidane.

The microsite allows you to post connect via Facebook and see your profile photo being signed by Pele or Maradone. (It is kinda odd, though. Shouldn’t they be signing their photographs instead of yours?) You also get to watch them play foosball and post your “shouts” by country.

Umbro is doing their thing with all their football prowess, showcasing their World Champion collections, supported by interesting blog posts, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter presence.

And to get close and personal, rough-housing with other World Cup fans, go check out PlayBeautiful, a pop-up match-viewing hub in NYC starting from June 11. It could pop-up anywhere: bars, restaurants, soccer fields… But on June 20, it’ll set up a brick-and-mortar shop at OpenHouse Gallery on Mulberry St (NoLIta). Go reserve your spot!

Meanwhile, Squeaky is working on some World Cup flavor on our own so stay tuned!

Lexus: Luxury Awaits 2.0

Luxury Awaits, a lifestyle microsite for Lexus, gets an upgrade in design and front-end coding. Working with Walton | Isaacson, Squeaky put together a site that is iPad- and IE6(eeek!)-friendly with soon-to-come Twitter Stream to increase traffic and support upcoming events, featuring artists such as Ryan Leslie, Hal Linton and Keri Hilson. Check it out.

Fred Perry is one cool cat

Talk about retro cool. Fred Perry, the tennis-inspired British clothing brand, wants you to tell them your story on Fredperrytellusyourstory.com.

In this latest campaign, the brand wants to bring the untold stories of the original Fred Perry shirt to life.  I love the graphic treatments, the colors, the cutout styles… everything gives out a very authentic, retro feel. Checkout their old ads.

On top of the retro, there is the sleekness of history: Fred Perry – 100 Years.

Yes, it is sleek, yet still very much in line with its retro and heritage spirit. Very authentic indeed and  I like it a lot.

“Look, mom… no Flash!” 04.15.10

Beautiful site from Mike Matas who was a designer at Apple. Super simple yet the fact that it’s not Flash made it stunning. Take a look at this video explaining the interface of the new site.

BokicaBo‘s website shows smooth implementation of sliding background and a nice progressive image preloading. Homepage is kinda blah but the slickness of the navigation and detail layover offset any inkling of disappointment I have over some of the design elements.

I really appreciate this Appear site. Super nice preloading, rollover/expand/close toggle, font replacement… A little chugging here and there, but seriously, kudos to the guys at Appear.

Fun Retro Web

Check out this animated gif galore at I’m Not An Artist. I remember the days I had to make many animated gifs.

It was back in 1999 and they’re these teeny-tiny animated-gif stamps for Eastern Mountain Sports’ e-card campaign. These mini banner ads are to be placed on the corner of  send-to-friend email templates and I had to actually come up with banner concepts and copy. Oh, and there’s one for every sports they cater to: snow-shoeing, mountain-climbing, skiing, kayaking… The list didn’t seem to end. I was really sick of animated gifs after that.

On the other hand, Love Creative site is a throwback to Powerpoint 97. Remember those cool wipe-out or dissolve transitions that used to make you go “ooohhh!” because you thought those are dope? They have all of them. Very retro indeed.

Stylish Sony Style

Sony Style’s Bravia microsite has brought back drooling over TV. The site takes  a little long to load but the interface is delicious. Mostly videos, the site showcases the new TV’s ability to tilt 6-degrees back for better viewing, connect to the internet and the social media sphere, etc.  and it’s visually stunning.

I love the control tool: a little flat scroll-wheel-turn-slider-turn-control-button that makes dragging your mouse for control feels very smooth. It’s hard to describe because it feels preciously like you’re actually using your fingertip. Maybe it’s just Friday and I’m having Campari and soda in the office.

Then there’s the 3D TV. I like the little Flash Twitter post display.

Now we just have to wait for TV signal from cable to catch up.

The not so Lonely Planet

Lonely Planet on mobile, TV, touch, web, social…

First, we start with the Lonely Planet mobile apps offering Guide Books and the audio Phrasebook, offering travellers help in multitude of languages, from Arabic to Swahili.

Then there’s LonelyPlanet.TV that produces and develops some of the best travel and factual programming, including its flagship series, Lonely Planet Six Degrees. This playful, sassy, streetsmart and unexpected show that connects viewers to what makes each city special – the people that live in it.

To match that spirit, One Planet. 100 million stories invites you to share your travel photos and win a round-the-world trip for two. Pretty cool interface once you get to the photos but it is a little slow. Another is a Twitter contest that harnesses the lightheartedness  and the social nature of Lonely Planet audience.

And in a true Lonely Planet traveler spirit, they developed the BlogSherpa where bloggers can blog about destinations and in return, get traffic and paid in return via Google Adsense.

The latest addition is Lonely Planet on Microsoft Surface prototype developed by Amnesia Razorfish to go into Lonely Planet stores. The app allows shoppers to place a guide book on the table and interact with content from that book, along with additional video content. You can then take a Lonely Planet passport book from the front counter, place it on the table, and then drag content from the books onto the passport, which you can retrieve later on the website.

This iconice brand seems to be doing stuff right. It stays true to the founders‘ attitude. Very cool.

Keds gets cool

Who knew Keds is for the cool kids now? The Original Sneaker by Keds is a totally cool interactive time travel with story of the day teamed with Daily & Decade Facts and links to style gallery and other features. You can also quicky tweet your inspiration. The Flash interface is clean and simple to navigate with nice panel-flipping transition.

The Style Gallery is powered by Chictopia.com, a fashion community housing style gallery, personal fashion blogs, contest, etc. Just put the URL of your photos and you’re in. Chictopia.com also lets you shop, find sales and shopping deals, and connect with other stylista. And the more you interact with the site (post in forum, comments on photos, upload your own photos), the more “chic rewards” you get, opening more site features as your accumulate points.

Another feature of the Keds site is Design Your Own Keds Shoes.  Powered by Zazzle, it lets your channel your inner artist and create your custom Keds. You can start from scratch or use others as inspiration.

Very cool, Keds. And I thought Keds shoes are something you have to be forced to wear! What do I know!