Playground: Transforming personal lubricants into aspirational beauty products.

Playground goes beyond sight and touch with full-sensory libido-enhancing products that stimulate the mind and body. helloplayground.com

Disciplines

Brand strategy
Art direction
Packaging design
Pitch deck design
Copywriting

Awards

NEXT Award
Best Wellness Brand Launch, 2023

Glamour
Beauty & Wellness Award Winner, 2023

Summary

Today’s personal lubricants are sticky, gross and visually unappealing. Women who need them, hate their options. We know. We surveyed over 5,000 of them—70% said they are “uninspired” by current options; 75% said they were “uncomfortable” shopping current brands; and 60% said the products “feel cheap”. Women today want clean, healthy products that also reflect their modern values and tastes. Playground was developed to capitalize on this opportunity and be a leader in the sexual wellness movement.

Playground co-founder and CEO, Catherine Magee, approached me to help develop a brand that blended beauty with sexual wellness, catalyzing new conversations around relationships and intimacy. Working alongside the team at Bartlett Brands, we defined Playground's brand strategy, product positioning, identity and packaging system. Unlike the space's three leading brands, who are made by chemical companies primarily focused on producing commercial grade lubricants for mechanical equipment, Playground's branding is cheeky, fun, and most importantly, designed to appeal to women rather than men (a surprisingly novel approach considering women account for the vast majority of personal lubricant sales).

To further challenge the status quo, we designed a bottle and box that looked very different from what you'd typically see on store shelves. The matte finish, warm color palette and refined imagery are beautiful, tactile, and as one customer described them, "classy". The minimally branded bottle is intentionally subdued, designed to sit comfortably on a dresser or nightstand without attracting attention or embarrassment.