Brand Building
Client: GCS (Girls Carrying Shit), Pinky Magazine
Project Details and Deliverables: GCS was rapidly evolving from a thriving Instagram community into a multi-channel brand launching a website, magazine, and its new flagship focus, Pinky. To sustain momentum and deepen audience connection, GCS needed a cohesive Brand and Tone Guide, a compelling Welcome Page (About Us), an engaging Welcome Email, and playful Product Descriptions optimized for Instagram.
Tone: Welcoming, silly, optimistic, casually insightful, with a confident big sister energy.
Target Audience: Non-men and queer individuals aged 20 to mid-30s, passionate about freedom in identity, expression, and sexuality.
Brand and Tone Guide:
To anchor GCS’s expanding brand identity, I created a detailed Brand and Tone Guide, beginning with a customized questionnaire for the founders. This tool uncovered deep insights into the ideal audience, brand intentions, and consumer interactions in order to ensure consistent voice and messaging across all future marketing channels. The guide remains a foundational resource for GCS’s ongoing projects.
Welcome Email
Challenge: Introduce the Pinky community, magazine, and events while teasing the possibility of readers becoming future Pinky creatives.
Strategy: I pitched branding the newsletter as “the group chat.” This strategy instantly fosters a sense of belonging and community. This positioning seeded reader loyalty and anticipation, reinforcing Pinky’s unique culture. The tone blended cultural slang with the brand’s signature personality, resonating authentically with the audience.
Impact: This inaugural email format became the blueprint for all subsequent promotional emails.
Subject Line: we just added you to the groupchat🤳💕
Snippet Preview: come hang out with us at one of our Live Events!
Product Description Instagram Post
The Challenge: Launch GCS’s playful new “Girls Carrying Smokes” hats in a tone familiar and beloved by the community.
Strategy: I spark memories of fun with witty, lighthearted humor by tapping into the nostalgic, playful vibe of preteen magazines. The caption’s simple, punchy style amplified brand personality while driving desire for the product.
Instagram Caption: never worry about which hand is responsible for your joint/lighter combo again. from now on, they’ll be on your head! (talk about a head high!)
Welcome Page
The Challenge: Craft an inviting space that uplifts GCS’s non-men community of artists, storytellers, and playful thinkers and spotlight Pinky magazine, upcoming events, and the newsletter “group chat.” I also highlighted Pinky’s commitment to financial giving back and shared the origin story behind the brand’s name.
Strategy: Tap into the whimsical, nostalgic language of preteen magazines of yesteryear. Simple sentences and a punchy sense of humor reveal the brand’s personality.
