Fleshlight. The worlds #1 selling male sex toy.
2016 - Definitely not the most conventional place to work as a graphic designer but the skills I learned there are some that I hold invaluable. I was able to explore many areas of design, vastly deepening my arsenal of abilities. I had many roles at Fleshlight including but not limited to, social media graphics, email blasts, photo touch ups, expo booth design, and merchandise design. Below are some examples of home page sliders, social media images, and email blasts.
2024 Update - No way around this one. I completely stand by what I said back in 2016. The subject material was definitely not the norm, but the job remained the same. I’d argue that it was more difficult in a number of ways. How do I communicate this product in a respectful non-demeaning way? How do I design around such and awkward subject, one that no one talks about, maybe ever? You’ll notice that it seemed easy, just make hot girl look hot. True enough, but I worked every day to make a genuine attempt to take the stigma out of a product like this. Humans react to sexuality and I don’t think it’s weird at all for one to explore their options when it comes to self satisfaction. I also made a conscious attempt every day to design within the rated R territory. X rated is just porn, I think designing with some restraint helped move the product into a more socially accepted realm. Also, there’s no real graceful way of saying this, but I became a master of photo touchups and manipulation while at Fleshlight.
FLESHLIGHT SOCIAL MEDIA
2016 - Out of all the roles I had at Fleshlight, one of my favorites was creating social media graphics. We were given near complete creative freedom when it came to the images for social media, which is always a good time for any designer.
2024 - Social media at Fleshlight was the Wild West. I created these not for Fleshlight’s socials, but the girls themselves. There’s immense pressure when designing for someone with a massive following. I had to adhere to the style of images they liked to post while finding an opportunity to push the product. In some cases I wasn’t allowed to have product or branding in the images at all. At the end of the day, I remember choosing these because there’s a wide variety of design styles here, sexy and more-or-less classy. It was always a fine line, especially for social media.
FLESHLIGHT EMAIL BLASTS
2016 - We would routinely send out email blasts promoting the launch of a new product, a sale that was currently running, or just an email reminder that we haven't forgotten about them. Here a few examples of those emails compiled in to two images.
2024 - It is what it is. I chose these examples because I think they exemplify traditional graphic design strategies. When I boil it down though, I was trying to promote curiosity over all else. I argued every day that restraint and class was the best way to promote this product, and I think I was successful on that front.