Holo Taco
Brand Design, UX/UI, Website Design, Packaging Design, Custom Iconography
Holo Taco is a high-quality nail polish brand created by Cristine Rotenberg, the personality behind the biggest nail art channel on YouTube — Simply Nailogical. Inspired by her love of all things ‘holo’ or holographic, Cristine wanted her brand to be bold, playful, and quirky. What’s a ‘Holo Taco’, you may ask? The unique name comes from Cristine’s nail tutorials on YouTube, where her followers would often hear her saying ‘holo taco’ instead of the intended ‘holo top coat’. What began as a comical mispronunciation soon turned into a famous expression on her channel, and now, her very own nail polish brand.
Credits: Designed in-house at Cinnamon Toast New Media Inc.
Product Photography by Holo Taco
01. The Brand Process
To begin, a moodboard was designed and countless logo iterations were rigoroursly explored/tested. Eventually, a small handful were fine-tuned in order to ensure the final product captured the essence of Rotenberg’s brand vision. It was important to create a bold and playful brand that tapped into the history of how the quirky term came to be (the mispronunciation of Holo Top Coat) while also, from a functional standpoint, transferring seamlessly to small scale packaging like a nail polish bottle.
The Finished Outcome
In the final mark (pictured below), The ‘holo’ (or holographic) element of the finalized brand’s name is represented by the logo’s inclusion of CDs, while the ‘taco’ aspect is represented more literally by the taco itself- serving as an ode to Rotenberg’s playful use of both emojis throughout her YouTube channel.
The Brand Style Guide
A detailed brand style guide was then created to serve as an essential tool to define the elements of Holo Taco’s brand and the rules that govern its usage, providing a roadmap for brand consistency across media channels and materials.
02. UX/UI & Website Design
An accessible and easy-to-navigate Shopify website was designed to drive product sales/conversions.
Industry research, competitor analyses, and important discourse with target audience members revealed that the online shop would predominantly be experienced on mobile devices, so it was important to deliver impeccable solutions for sorting/filtering large libraries of polishes on small screen sizes, while also delivering a smooth and seamless online shopping experience.
A sitemap was first created to define the structure and hierarchy of Holo Taco’s new site. Next, wireframes were created to highlight important interface elements and serve as the blueprint of the page structure/layout. This helped provide the Holo Taco with a clear idea of the functional components of the UI before jumping into the design phase.
The Design
The site design features vibrant hover states inspired by Holo Taco’s gradient-rich colour palette, playful motion/animation, and custom designed iconography (including a Holo Taco-themed navigation set in place of a regular mouse).
The Pattern Library
Lastly, a pattern library was designed in order to ensure consistent UI, ease of maintenance, and the ability to facilitate ease of reuse of the site’s core functional and design components.
03. The Packaging & Collateral
Playful, bold, and sleek packaging/ print collateral were designed to elevate the Holo Taco brand and allow it to truly stand out amongst its competitors.
