Reimagining the Face Painting Experience for Young-at-Heart Adults
Background: Hobby to Business
I started a face painting business in 2016. It started as a weekend gig. I saw how excited kids get after I give them a makeover, but I find myself having to convince adults that they can also participate.
My mission evolved into building inclusive experiences to bring the joy of face painting to everyone, including young-at-heart adults who are often hesitant to participate.
Challenge: Bridging the Gap
The event entertainment industry typically profit from events geared towards children. Adults rarely participate, often feeling "too old" for activities like "face painting".
As a challenge, I wanted to reimagine the entire experience to make it more appealing to all ages. This redesign involves a reimagined brand identity, website, business cards, and service design.
Outcome & Impact
In the 3 months following the rebrand,
- I attended 22 events
- I painted 30 adults and ~230 kids (11% of the population were adults, compared to 3% before)
- The monthly revenue 3x'd compared to 2016.
- The referral rates doubled compared to 2016.
- Instagram following grew from 0 -> 230.
Lots of process and research guides my designs for FHSA — the rest of the case study covers wonderful research, creative problem solving and architectural redesigns. But if you're in a time crunch, feel free to:
Finding the Gap
- Target audience: Primarily preschool/elementary children;
- Competition: Often family-owned. Offer face painting, balloons, caricatures, mascots, bouncy castles cotton candy, magic shows, etc.
- Untapped segment: older siblings, parents, grandparents.
- Opportunity: Growing popularity of body art (tattoos, henna) suggests potential for adult face painting.
- Positioning: My fine arts background and position as a Gen Z allow connection with diverse age groups and exploration of non-traditional designs.
Assumptions
What's stopping adults from getting their face painted?
In the next 5 parties I attended, I interviewed my guests on whether there's interest in getting face painted, and to get a sense of how they view face painting.
Findings:
- Older kids and parents prefer more mature, delicate and "Instagrammable" designs.
- Many adults felt they were "too old", but were very interested once encouraged (either by me or other parents).
- Many face painters prioritize speed over engaging guests.
So how might we make the face painting experience as exciting for adults as it is for kids?
01 Improving the Customer Experience
Here's a journey a parent goes through to have a face painter show up at their kid's birthday party.
The booking process is undeniably the most friction. Before booking a painter, parents need to know whether the paint is safe, what happens after they book a painter, the painting process, and a guarantee that all guests will have a chace to be painted.
Opportunities:
- Clarify safety and booking on the website.
- Use Instagram for customer acquisition.
- Design business cards for easy referrals.
- Optimize the painting process for efficiency.
02 The Landing Page
The goal is to create the feeling of playfulness, authenticity, and safety. It's important to make the booking process extremely simple and transparent.
I kept the landing page simple, prioritizing a quick launch as we approach summer which is a peak season for this business.
# Placeholder
# Placeholder
03 Business Cards
Most customers come from word of mouth. It's important to have memorable business cards that parents want to keep & share.
- Exploration: Tested horizontal, vertical, and hybrid layouts.
- Final Design (Hybrid): Vertical front to stand out, horizontal back for easy information parsing. Clients preferred this balance of unique and user-friendly.
# Placeholder
The logo is a doodle-style avatar, which helps me create a personal connection to my guests. The black and white logo with a playful purple star helps me connect with a mature audience while keeping it playful.
[it'd be pretty cool to show my business card/logo with others]
As a new business, it's important to stand out. While competition use primary colours in their advertisement, I'm offering an alternative experience that parents (those who go to Equinox, get tattoos), lifestyle experience business.
04 Social Media Strategy
Pictures paint a thousand words, espeically when instagram is often the first touchpoint of potential customers (moms).
# Placeholder
The business page focuses on showing diversity in age. Not just kids, but any age, gender, and occasions through unstaged, natural, genuine photos.
05 The Painting Experience
It's still paramount to prioritize speed. I streamlined the setup and painting process to reduce wait times and clear lines faster, improving the experience for everyone.
Metrics
- Events: 22 in 3 months
- Total Faces: 266
- Adults: 30 (11%)
- Referrals: 18% (4 events)
- Revenue: 3x increase since 2016
- Referral Rate: 2x
- Instagram: Grew to 234 followers
Next steps
Explore partnerships
Reach out to local businesses catered to celebrating special occasions, like indoor playgrounds, climbing gym for kids. Leverage seasonal events in major cities (high foot-traffic).
Build new verticals
Add temporary tattoo and henna service. Market to adjacent event types like wedding, corporate holiday parties, school fun fairs.
Expand offering to more cities
Hire and work with face painters based in other cities. Build a team of contractors and move to a commission model.
Latest updates
- put images here of festival, maybe cards of instagram reels
This project was about more than just painting faces; it was about challenging assumptions and designing an inclusive experience that brought smiles to people of all ages. See more at Lina's Face Painting Website and @facepaintbylina.