Marc Jacobs Beauty

Marc Jacobs Beauty arrived with a site that wasn’t earning its potential. Critical UX deficiencies through the funnel. Underutilized luxury photography that the brand had paid for and the site wasn’t showing. No coherent e-commerce strategy underneath the visual layer.

Conversion suffered. AOV suffered. The brand expression itself felt diluted by the friction.

The work: rebuild the experience from the audience up, without sacrificing the rule-breaking creative voice that defines Marc Jacobs.

Six months. Four designers. Frequent client presentations and working sessions. I led creative direction and co-designed alongside the team.

We started with audience definition. Online questionnaires and informal user interviews to understand who the site was actually serving. Then a visual hierarchy and editorial narrative methodology that struck the precise balance between luxury brand expression and shoppability. The photography moved from background dressing to core storytelling vehicle. Every product page earned its discovery moment without sacrificing the path to checkout.

Luxury and shoppability aren’t oppositional. They need the same discipline applied at different layers. Brand expression at the editorial level. Conversion-focused UX at the interaction level. Most luxury redesigns make the mistake of treating one at the cost of the other.

As I dug into Marc’s personality, it became clear that his love of music was part of his creative process as well as mine. And it ran the gamut from Soul to R+B, Dance to Industrial. It all made sense to me as this unexpected mix of music had one thing in common: it was all innovative. We were being driven by creativity at every turn.

Role. Creative Director and co-designer.

Team. Led 4 designers over a 6-month engagement. Partnered with the UX Lead on audience definition and conversion strategy.

Outcome. Site ran successfully from 2017 until 2021. Currently being relaunched by Coty Inc.