We used continuously revolving 3D animations to reflect Fat Tuesday’s grab-and-go culture, as well as realistic film and photography, flyer-style torn edging, and bright neon signage - a nod to the fact that their Vegas stores are often first-stop vacation spots for those visiting the city. 

A brand that blends in, instead of just trying to fit in

To increase footfall, we created an interactive map to show users where they can grab their first (or their next) drink. Cup QR codes direct users to a location finder, and we integrated with Fat Tuesday’s third-party gift voucher platform to enable users to quickly and easily check their balance online.

A user journey that keeps the party going

Research showed that visiting Fat Tuesday was usually a group activity, and almost always part of a wider experience - be that partying, sightseeing, or hitting the beach. With a selfie-worthy selection of drinks and a ready-made audience of social media users, we added a live social feed that synced with in-store screens across all locations to show the good times never stop rolling.

A space for sharing the good times

After the go-live of the new Fat Tuesday site, we set to work on overhauling the sister brand - New Orleans Original Daiquiri. The premise and concept were the same (frozen cocktails to-go, a dated online presence), but with all outlets in the state of Louisiana, and an older more local audience to appeal to, we gave the brand a small-town, neighbourly feel. Think laid-back Southern vibes, a retro typeface and photography, and a feel-good colour palette and design that says “stop by and kick back with a cold one”.

A local, Louisiana-based little sister

Fat Tuesday

First up, we overhauled the existing user experience on the Dr Few site, creating something that was cleaner, simpler and way more streamlined. As well as refining the user journey, we elevated the look and feel across the homepage, product pages and overall shopping cart. We introduced new social proof content including testimonials and real-life before/after photos, plus—we made sure plenty of opportunities to up-sell and cross-sell were woven throughout the site.

A Shopify reskin for a revolutionary skincare brand

Alongside all the website updates, we brought in a brand-new email strategy. Our goal was to create an experience that went beyond the website—using detailed storytelling to drive brand awareness, increase average order value and, ultimately, encourage more repeat purchases. To make this happen, we designed and built an engaging welcome flow, set up abandoned cart notifications, and rolled out a new post-purchase journey. And to make sure everything was optimised across every touchpoint, we got to work on an in-depth a/b testing strategy, too.

An email strategy that engages and educates users 

A premium brand like Dr Few should look the part. So in line with the website refresh and marketing activity, we defined a new art direction that brought the products to life using a range of textures, background colours, props, and staging. Then, we took things into the S8 Studio to shoot new packaging, product and bundle photography, as well as playful stop-motion videos for ads, email flows, pop-ups and more. 

Elevating the entire brand—with brand-new visual assets

Dr Few

With heaps of product-related info, plus an entire area of the site dedicated to sex ed, we already had plenty of content to work with. But after a series of persona and TOV workshops, we defined a new visual identity – one that better represents the brand’s empowering, pleasure-first narrative and celebrates the joy of sex. 

Changing the narrative around sex talk

We collaborated with Smile Makers’ SEO agency throughout the project, from initial conversations around wireframes to ensuring all metadata was migrated to the new site. We also wove high-ranking search terms into the website copy and made sure the new site structure changed as little as possible. 

Ticking all the SEO-shaped boxes

We pushed the boundaries of standard e-commerce page layouts to create a premium site that’s playful, functional and puts accessibility first. We also found different ways to educate users about pleasure-first sex, from fun facts and vibrator comparison charts to more in depth how-to tips. 

Taking the stigma out of sex toy shopping

We overhauled the matchmaker quiz, creating a multi-step user flow that encourages users to talk about their pleasure preferences in order to find their perfect vibe. We added an Omnisend integration that allows users to receive a copy of results by email. Plus, with a custom Google Analytics/GTM setup that captures data at every step of the user flow, Smile Makers can gain a better understanding of their audience, perspectives on pleasure, and the most popular sex toys chosen. 

Translating a Typeform quiz into a bespoke digital experience

We added subtle, playful animations that align with Smile Makers’ joyful brand image. Think confetti cannon explosions, bouncing product imagery, and gentle, floating movements on scroll. Plus, we couldn’t resist having a little fun with some flying vibes on the 404.

Creating a site that moves and shakes

Ahead of go-live, we migrated Smile Makers’ entire library of blogs and sex ed content across to the new Shopify site. We used a custom script to ensure the content aligned with the brand-new design and Shopify article structure. Plus, we transferred all customer and order information and Yotpo reviews ahead of launch. 

Migrating from WooCommerce to Shopify

Smile Makers

Aescape empowers everybody to embrace self-care for better living. We went beyond functionality, crafting a narrative that invites everyone to envision themselves benefiting from Aescape's massage. Whether you're a member seeking relaxation, a partner exploring new wellness solutions, or an investor interested in cutting-edge innovations, the website demonstrates how Aescape enhances lives through accessible, inclusive self-care. 

A story-centric site design

We collaborated closely with Aescape on everything from custom icon creation to art direction. The goal was to create a deeper, more emotional connection with the user by illustrating how Aescape makes you feel: refreshed and rejuvenated. Throughout the site, we used compelling video and photography to show Aescape in action, maintaining an ultra-clean look and feel—and keeping text to a minimum.

Translating the brand story across every touchpoint

Aescape empowers users to embark on a personalised wellness journey. The brand is centred around boundless optimism, limitless possibilities, and finding the courage to transform—so we incorporated continuous scrolling to signify free-flowing movement. We explored subtle interactions, micro-animations and transitions across all components, and created a super-fluid web experience that engages the user and guides them seamlessly along their journey.

An experience made to move you

Each section of the site was tailored to communicate Aescape's benefits to every audience. We explored the best approach in terms of colour, structure and content, and mapped out the ideal architecture for each persona. From intuitive Aescape location searches to an interactive ROI calculator, every user journey was designed to be as frictionless as possible. Plus, we integrated multiple newsletter lists, contact forms, and the Aescape booking app to ensure the site was fully optimised for all business goals. 

A journey tailored to every audience

Aescape

Viatu’s current identity didn’t truly reflect who the brand was, what it did, and – more importantly – where it was headed. We ran workshops with the entire Viatu team, covering everything from audience personas to user flows. We took a deep dive into values, vision, purpose and personality. And all of this together helped us develop a stronger, more defined brand identity that would be communicated internally and externally. 

Understanding people, positioning and purpose 

With new trip locations on the horizon, the new brand needed to easily grow with the business. We built a palette inspired by Africa’s wild, untouched landscapes, using colour psychology to make sure our choices aligned with Viatu’s modern and confident character, but still gave a nod to its sustainable roots. We explored traditional hand-drawn tribal patterns and texture, delved deep into photography and iconography styles, and chose typography that reflected Viatu’s bold and playful nature. Then, we rigorously tested everything for legibility and clarity. The result? A brand that translates across all languages and currencies – and can be adapted in line with new product features and Viatu’s future outside of Africa.

Giving the new visual identity room to grow

Storytelling is vital to the Viatu brand. Behind the hundreds of experiences, accommodation listings and blog articles was an entire team of writers. But with this collaboration came inconsistencies. As well as defining a stronger verbal identity through a series of brand personality workshops, we developed a TOV guide featuring sample content, detailed dos and don’ts, and rewrites of existing examples from across multiple touchpoints to help the Viatu team roll out the new voice effectively. 

Finding Viatu's voice - and futureproofing it

While we took care of branding and web design on the front end, Viatu’s product development team would always be responsible for the trip booking system. To ensure consistency across the entire user journey, we built a comprehensive design style guide that featured everything from brand placement rules to UX styling. We even outlined photography aspect ratios, so all imagery translated perfectly across desktop, mobile and social media. 

Creativity meets consistency

Armed with Viatu’s new identity, we designed and developed a site that’s user first – and future first. Working in conjunction with Viatu’s development team, we simplified and streamlined the trip booking process, allowing the user to clearly map out details of their trip, personalise accommodation options. Plus, we paved the way for an entire pipeline of new functionality, including the introduction of car hire, activities, and more.

A site that's no longer product first, but user first

Viatu

Our main goal was to modernise the brand by introducing a new look and feel that’s playful and youthful, but still gives a nod to its core values. We paired a new palette of contrasting colours with distinctive design elements such as badge stamps and image inktraps. Then, we went big and bold with typography.

220 years young: a traditional brand with a bold new energy

British style is all about independence and eclecticism. And when your history is as inspiring as Peregrine’s, it's only right that you write with flair. We outlined a new brand voice that brings together the wit of great British humour, the authenticity of storytelling, and the straight-talking tone of a brand that’s big on sustainability. In other words, charming, honest and rugged. Definitely no wooliness. 

A voice that speaks volumes

Our discovery work revealed that almost 3 in 4 users were returning visitors. And since these users are more likely to make a purchase, it only made sense to incorporate more upsell features in both the cart and the wishlist. Shoppers now see recommended products based on what they’ve purchased in the past. Or, they’re presented with suggestions of products that (based on data from past visitors) are frequently purchased together. 

Personal(ised) shopping, from the wishlist to the checkout

Peregrine’s a British-made brand, but its products are sold all over the world. Using Shopify Markets, we built a bespoke location switcher that groups countries into regions and enables shoppers to see specific pricing based on their location. Plus, the Peregrine team can customise pages depending on the season or campaign. 

We also went the extra mile to create more seamless user journeys. Users can browse clothing by size (and only see items that are in stock), as well as product type and material. The responsive image galleries are tailored to their chosen product colour. And, we also added quick buy functionality to the collections pages and blog, so users can easily add featured products to their basket. 

Making it better to browse and easier than ever to buy

Peregrine

Mixing up work and play, every day 

We design identities, build websites, and craft growth strategies that better connect e-commerce brands with customers. 

Brand and digital that cultivate connection, conversion and joy.

Take it from our people people

Last week, we set statuses to ‘out of office’ and met in the terracotta-topped city of Lisbon for our annual team retreat. It’s not often we all get together—and since we’ve recently welcomed a tonne of new faces to the team, this year was all about eating, drinking and just hanging out IRL.

One by one, we made ourselves at home at Lisbon’s Mama Shelter—a super sassy urban hangout that we love for its foosball tables and family-style feasting. For some of us, it was a case of a quick coach ride to the capital. But for others (sorry, Cyprus crew), it was a late-night arrival after various layovers and lost luggage drama. Plus, there was a last-minute detour for Jasmine, who, after feeling very smug with her early arrival at Gatwick, ended up making a mad dash to Heathrow (the airport she was actually meant to be flying from…)

Despite the bleary eyes, the next day started strong with the first of our activities: a pastel de nata masterclass. Working under the watchful eye of the pros at Nat'elier, we hand-crafted and baked our very own versions of the Portuguese classic. Why yes, we did make our own pastry.

That evening, the voyage of gastronomy continued as we took to the streets of the city for a tuk-tuk food tour. We sampled everything from local cheeses and vino verde to the city’s famous pork bifanas. We even sat down to the traditional salted cod dish, bacalhau à brás, with a side of Fado guitar. All of this was rounded off with a freshly baked pastel de nata chaser—yes, more pastries.

For our final night, we tore around the city armed with tablets as we took part in an outdoor escape hunt. Turns out nothing makes us more competitive than a Time Cops-themed backstory, cryptic clues, and a 90-minute countdown clock. But after crowning the winners, it was onwards to Sumaya for our final meal together: Lebanese mezze followed by a birthday cake for a 

 surprised Soraia, who turned 28 while we were away.

The theme of this year’s retreat was all about getting together—so we made plenty of time to do just that. We explored museums, wandered around botanic gardens, and scaled those deceptively steep streets of the old town. We drank port and tonic in Alfama, did karaoke in Bairro Alto, and each night, claimed the hotel terrace as ours for beers and cocktails.

We reconnected with people we hadn’t seen in real life for a while—and, for the first time this year, almost all of us were together in person (shout out to Andreas, Alex and Simon who were with us in spirit). But best of all, we came away with a tonne of new memories and Slack memes, feeling hyped about what the future has in store for the S8 fam.

 love to Fran and Mario for treating us to three incredible days out of the office. It’s safe to say we loved every second.

S8 Team trip 2024: Lisbon

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Whether you love them or hate them, it’s safe to say that most consumers still can’t resist them. So with some of the biggest sales events of the calendar year just around the corner, how can you make sure you’re doing everything you can to get in on the action?

Here’s our 9-step Black Friday prep plan for e-commerce brands.

1. Decide on your offer. And make it a good one.

Your customers won’t settle for the kinds of discounts you get for simply signing up to a mailing list. They’ll be holding out for big things when it comes to Black Friday. They may even have their favourites list and basket filled up already. So make sure it’s an enticing enough offer that will cut through the noise and convince them to part with their cash in the first few hours.

A lot of time is spent focusing on the front end of your site—but it pays to give a bit of love to the checkout, too. How seamless is the cart journey on mobile? Are there features you could be utilising to increase the average cart value, like upsell or cross-selling tools? Is it worth adding buy now, pay later options or shortcuts like Shop Pay? If it makes the purchase journey easier, then it’s worth considering (and testing) ahead of time.

3. Prep your store for an influx of traffic.

If you’re using a managed platform like Shopify then relax—everything’s handled for you. But if your website is on a self-hosted tool such as WordPress or Craft, then it’s a good idea to know how to monitor your server resources. If you need to scale up your hosting to deal with additional demand, there are caching and CDN tools like Cloudflare and Fastly. But, if you’re expecting a huge surge in traffic, you could always look into implementing a virtual waiting room using Cloudflare, Akamai or AWS to prevent any overloading.

By that, we mean go back to basics and make sure your tactics align with every consumer you might encounter throughout the sales period.

Broad, top-level targeting that intros your brand to new audiences with messaging around deals and promos.

Middle of the funnel: the consideration phase

If users have shown an interest, retarget them with content such as reviews, testimonials and limited-time offers.

Bottom of the funnel: the conversion phase

Now’s the time to drive urgency with countdown timers, reminders and exclusive discounts for last-minute shoppers.

Over the next 3-7 days, encourage repeat purchases with personalised follow-up orders and upsells.

Figure all of this out ahead of time and trust us, your strategy will be foolproof.

If you’re continuously capturing leads via a newsletter sign-up, then ramp things up in the run-up to Black Friday. Creating a landing page that captures email and phone numbers in exchange for early access to the sale is an easy win. Or, you could supercharge your subscriber sign-ups by throwing additional things like discounts, free gifts or mystery sign-up offers into the mix.

6. Be ready with your email campaigns and flows.

Of course, you’re going to need a fully-fledged email plan that targets your subscribers with your Black Friday offer. But think about revamping all your existing flows, too. Feature Black Friday messaging in your welcome flows during the Black Friday period, and optimise any automated flows like your abandoned cart journey, too. It’s simple tactics like this that can be done well in advance but are super effective.

7. Create ad campaigns that stand out from the crowd.

Catchy creative is one thing, but delivering the right message to the right people at the right time is where you’ll really see results. Make sure you’re considering Meta ads for targeting and retargeting specific audiences, utilising assets such as customer testimonials to build trust. Plus, be sure to roll out broad audience targeting with personalised dynamic ads, too.

8. Have a plan in place for community management.

Managing your social media community is important throughout the year, but during peak sales periods like Black Friday, the stakes are even higher due to the massive influx of engagement. As more users will be interacting with your ad content, it’s vital you have a plan in place for monitoring comments and inboxes. As a minimum, make sure you:

Prepare a set of pre-written responses for common queries to save time and make sure your voice is consistent.

Prioritise comments that are most visible or influential, like those on popular posts or those that get engagement, fast.

Automatically filter and hide comments with offensive words, phrases, or spam.

Have a plan for how to quickly escalate more complex issues, like a dedicated Slack channel with your customer support team.

Keep interactions authentic to ensure genuine connections with customers.

9. Get prepped with your post-purchase activity, too.

Black Friday is just the beginning. With the right kind of post-purchase activity, you could have a new wave of brand-lovers on your hands. So get ready with those post-purchase email flows and campaigns so you can start engaging with your new buyers right away.

Our 9-step Black Friday prep plan for e-commerce brands

We recently launched our brand-new creative studio in Portugal (woohoo!) Creating winning e-commerce experiences has always been our bag, so having a dedicated space where we can do everything from art direction to photoshoots just made sense.

But we were still pretty surprised when someone recently said to us “A photography studio? Aren’t you just using AI for everything?” Not everything, friends. Here’s why we believe real-life photography still beats AI-generated imagery in the world of e-commerce.

Don’t get us wrong, we’re big believers in using AI for mood-boarding and mock-ups, or helping us fast-track touch-ups in the editing room. But when it comes to art direction and actually capturing content, that’s something AI can’t replicate. Take our new Art Director, Rita. She’s crafted visual identities for tonnes of brands in her time, so she knows what works and what resonates. Her ideas come from true inspiration, not what’s already on the web—and she’ll tell you herself how important creative freedom is for shooting quality content. We’re creating content for humans, so don’t underestimate the power of the human experience, people.

It doesn’t matter what you’re selling, we can all agree there’s no excuse for a sloppy shopping experience. We eat with our eyes, right? So nothing fills a cart faster than a super polished product, packaging or lifestyle shot. And it’s not just about avoiding the cringeworthy, superimposed look you get from clunky AI mock-ups. Photos and videos captured in a studio have a scale that’s 10 times greater than an AI-generated image, so you can use them for super-detailed close-ups, big branded billboards, print, packaging and anything else you can think of. And believe us when we say there’s nothing a marketing team loves nothing more than having a whole library of high-quality assets to play with.

They’re your assets. So make them yours.

The clue’s in the name—if you’re using artificial intelligence to create your product shots, can you ever really call them original? If real people and places are a big part of your brand identity, then real photography is the only way to capture this—right down to the tiny details such as lighting, texture and colour. By keeping it real, you’re not only steering well clear of any issues like misuse or misrepresentation, but you’re building trust, too. We’re hardwired to be suspicious of anything that looks artificial—but give us an accurate picture of what we’re buying into and we’ll be way more likely to part with our cash.

You can’t shoot content without a solid strategy. But the good news is, this kind of groundwork pays for itself. Art direction just so happens to be one of the best investments you can make in your brand. Whether you’re just starting out or simply want to refresh your assets, art direction (and the bank of beautifully shot photography that comes out of it) will help you maintain that consistent look and feel online, offline—and anywhere else you show up in the future.

Brand and digital that cultivate connection, conversion and joy.

Mixing up work and play, every day
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Take it from our people people

S8 Team trip 2024: Lisbon

Our 9-step Black Friday prep plan for e-commerce brands

Why real e-commerce photography still beats AI-generated imagery

Let us take you further than you’ve ever been

Brand and digital that cultivate connection, conversion and joy.

Mixing up work and play, every day View Work

Take it from our people people

S8 Team trip 2024: Lisbon

Our 9-step Black Friday prep plan for e-commerce brands

Why real e-commerce photography still beats AI-generated imagery

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Mixing up work and play, every day
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