Collaborating with motivated solopreneurs, duos, organizations, and brands for roots-up business builds, holistic branding, marketing strategy, and meaningful design & communications.
AESTHETIC AUTONOMY
Brand Strategy + Project Coaching + Pricing Strategy + Website Architecture
Lauren Klein is an artist, futures theorist, and the founder of Aesthetic Autonomy. Her mind is brilliant, her ideas vast, and her services deep in concept and impact.
When she first came to me for project support, it was about her website. We learned quickly that there was a great need for the nuts and bolts of her business- the hows of the what. We set off first to distill her mission into revenue-driving services, delivered through digestible marketing language. It's the customer-facing languaging - translating artspeak into common and communal language that is the secret sauce. This approach to communication laid the foundation for her brand strategy refresh.
The intersection of conceptual art and commerce is a tricky space. Lauren's activism, intellect and art was part of a service that she offers for not only the expression of the work, but also revenue...
One of her offerings is part social practice and part salon service. She teaches people the very rare skill of how to cut one's own hair, taking their often-outsourced aesthetics, part of a larger industrial beauty complex, into their own hands. Very magical, super awesome, and serious.
So, comes the magic question: How much should this work of art-and-service cost? Further, is it possible to establish a pricing structure for folks who can afford more, and for those who can afford less? How do we create pricing with equity at its core, and delivery?
We created packages that lifted pricing to the true value of the experience while remaining accessible, with options for lower-income folks to participate in these rich experiences.
Ultimately, we were able to close the space between the visual and interactive art, the futures thinking documents and presentations, and the revenue-driving and public-facing journey of her hair clients. Wow. A four-month journey that is now clearly accessible on her website.
And Aesthetic Autonomy? What does it mean?
Check Lauren's work out here.
I knew I needed to shift my site from being a portfolio of my work into something way more clear and communicative: a client-facing site, easy to use, geared towards selling, with my research and manifesto there, too - for anyone who wants to dive deep. Nicole figured [how] to organize my conceptual work and the services I sell into the same site… very important, as they are one-in-the-same. She constructed a framework for the design, I built it, and then she lent her eye to teach me how to see the problematic visual elements that I couldn’t see.
It’s been fun for me as many more people have gotten super excited about my work by checking out my (much more usable) website.
LAUREN KLEIN
Founder, Aesthetic Autonomy