Design Interview: Stephanie Shakoff
Stephanie Sakoff Lucky Chick
By Jennifer Kwok, Associate EditorStephanie Sakoff, founder, president, and creative director for Lucky Chick (Pearl River, NY), devotes herself to helping customers relax. In 1999, Sakoff launched Lucky Chick Pampering Products for a Lucky Lifestyle "to encourage people to be good to themselves," she says. Her whimsical package designs invite customers to indulge, mind and body, in the pleasures that pampering can bring.
"I started Lucky Chick because I wanted a creative outlet that would be personally meaningful," says Sakoff, whose work experience includes abstract sculpting and designing athletic shoes. In 1998, when her cousin was suffering from a migraine, Sakoff came up with the idea to fill a kit with products that would soothe a headache. The concept of the kit evolved into the Lucky Chick Classic Beauty Box, a pampering kit filled with an eye gel mask, a loofah, and 2-oz bottles of lavender Lotsa Bubbles bubble bath, Lucky Lotion body lotion, Spritz Up hydrating spray, and Suds Up shower gel. Deciding that she needed a carton to house the products, Sakoff created a mock-up using a donut box, which she painted with primer and sketched on, using Magic Markers. "I liked the donut box's shape because the handles make it easy to carry," says Sakoff. The donut carton has served as the model for all of the Lucky Chick Beauty Box collections, including Blushing Bride,
Lucky in Love, and Sole Survivor.
Lucky Chick, the character that Sakoff first drew for the Classic carton, has become the company's trademark. Depicted with her arms raised in what Sakoff calls a diva pose, Lucky Chick appears on the line's packages in various scenes. For instance, on the Rub-a-Dub-Dub Lucky Chick in a Tub carton, Lucky Chick relaxes in a bubble bath.
"Customers identify the brand because
they recognize Lucky Chick," says Sakoff. Sakoff chooses stock containers for the line's primary packages. "The academic disciplines I studied helped me to develop an eye for what looks good in terms of form, shape, and proportion," says Sakoff, who has a bachelor's degree from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (New York City) and a master's degree from The School of Visual Arts (New York City). Color-coordinating the packages and the products helps make the line look more unique than stock. For instance, the Soothing Eye Gel Mask, the Three Bubbly Bars soap, and the Scrub, Scrub, Scrub! gloves are purple, to match their secondary packages.
The company also offers many of the kits' products in individual packages. "Customers wanted larger sizes of their favorite products," says Sakoff. "Plus, larger containers allow more decoration, which is exciting for me." For example, the 8-oz tubes for the body lotion, hand cream, and shower gel feature more-elaborate labels than the products' 2-oz kit containers. Sakoff also plans to introduce more color cosmetics to the line, which currently includes the Lucky Lavender nail polish and the Lucky Lips Lip Shines.