Francesco Black - Working Outside the Box

The owners of Francesco Black Salon in San Francisco, came to us with an interesting problem: how to enable great stylists to provide services at their clients’ locations. Francesco Fiscucci himself is a world-class stylist, and it didn’t seem appropriate for anyone associated with the Francesco Black brand to show up with a bag full of tools and supplies and set up on a desk or table. Instead, the team wanted an experience that created an all-in-one salon station that was easy to move and manage for the stylist, and created a comfortable and relaxing experience for clients. They wanted their brand to be represented both visually, and through their brand values expressed in the salon unit: quality, cleanliness, skill, and ease.

For the first version of the Rolling Salon, we adapted an off-the-shelf unit made by a makeup case manufacturer, to get through design and prototyping quickly. This unit was adequate for illustrating the experience that FB is building, but wasn’t the right solution for ongoing use.

We’re embarking now on a new design, owned by FB, and engineered from the ground up to incorporate functional and aesthetic requirements of the client. This design becomes an asset that belongs to FB, and that they can use to grow their business. Having control and ownership over the design means that adjustments to implement new features can happen quickly, and being able to spin a new prototype iteration in a number of days helps FB stay nimble.

Stay tuned for more updates!