Designer Interview: Kate Smith, KalaStyle
Kate SmithThis self-proclaimed “hippie chick” talks soap and politics.
By Jennifer Kwok, EditorWith fervor escalating around this November’s election, KalaStyle’s Vote soap is once again set to sell record numbers. “I got a call from one of our best accounts in Washington, DC, and they called to tell me that even though business is kind of down for everybody, and sales are sluggish across the board, the Vote soap is selling like crazy,” reports KalaStyle’s cofounder, Kate Smith.
Smith first introduced Vote soap prior to the presidential election in 2004. “I was so disenchanted with the lack of voting in this country,” she says. “The thing that bothered me the most was the noninterest, almost apathy, of America’s young people.”
To express her opinion, Smith created Vote soap, whose tagline reads: “Take a shower with this soap. It’s good for you—and so is your vote. Do both!”
First launched in May 2004 at a stationery trade show in New York, the soap was an immediate hit. The entire supply sold out by that September. Also, as reported in the society pages of The New York Times, one bride even used the soap as a wedding favor, with a bar of soap set on each guest’s dinner plate.
Based on its past success, and to show her enthusiasm for this year’s election, Smith chose to relaunch the soap.
Through its packaging, Vote soap’s message is loud and clear. The word Vote, in big block letters, is the only graphic that appears on the primary display panel of the soap’s red, white, and black paper carton, made with recycled paper and printed with soy inks. On the other side of the carton, the words Feel Good were printed. Vote is also carved into one side of soap; the words Feel Good carved onto the other.
On shelves, the one word, Vote, grabs attention, especially during these times. “When you go into a store, especially a store selling personal care and cosmetic products, you’re just bombarded with visuals,” says Smith. “I asked myself, what would be the thing that I could put on the carton that would make someone say, ‘What’s that?’ I had to make it high-profile.”
After she created Vote soap, Smith went on to add two other soaps to what she calls her line of “statement soaps.” One soap is called Peace, engraved with a peace symbol and packaged in a green-and-black carton printed with the peace symbol and the line, “Peace is good for all skin types.”
The other soap is Save Water, packaged in a carton decorated with a woodblock print designed by Smith’s close friend, Jane Burke-Cullinan, who also designed the printed pattern on the Peace carton. “She’s another hippie chick, like me, and we go way back,” Smith says.
One side of the Save Water carton reads, “Shower with a Friend,” a saying made popular during the 1960s, Smith says. “It’s funny when I’m doing a trade show, because sometimes someone will pick up the Save Water carton and say, ‘Shower with a Friend? I remember that!’” Inside each carton is a slip of paper with 21 tips on saving water.
“Besides being great products, these soaps have been a good medium to get messages that are important to me out in a friendly way,” says Smith. “And luckily for us, these soaps are doing really well, too.”
Web Exclusive
Kate Smith, owner of Kala Style, on the handmade prints featured on Kala Style's Peace and Save Water soap cartons:
I have a very dear old friend named Jane Burke-Cullinan, in New York . She is a weaver and a printmaker. One Christmas, she sent me a card that she had screen-printed herself. It was the pattern that I ended up using for the Peace soap carton because I just fell in love with it. And then she did a woodblock print for my birthday card a couple of years ago that had those fish drawings that you see on the Save Water cartons. I had saved those cards because I love everything that she gives me. I called her and said, “Listen, Janie, I'm going to do a Peace soap and a Save Water soap. Is it okay if I use the designs that you did for me for my Christmas and birthday cards?” And she said absolutely.
It's funny—when I decided to use her prints, I had to take her cards and scan them. But I didn't want to make any alterations to the designs. I didn't want to clean anything up that wasn't perfect, because they were handmade prints, and I didn't want to digitally turn them into perfect masterpieces. And I like that my best friend did these designs for me.