Boléro Eyewear

Boléro Eyewear is owned and operated by V.P.I. Canada Limited, one of Canada’s longest-standing importers and distributors of sunglasses and reading glasses. When starting out in 1972, this proudly-Canadian and family-owned company had one mission and one mission only—to provide stylish specs that were not only on point, but on budget.

While I worked at Certo Creative, I was tasked with revamping the entire Boléro Canada website. With the previous website looking outdated—our client desired a more modern, sophisticated and user-friendly design to attract a new generation of customers. Incorporating thoughtful e-commerce functionality was also a high priority.

Additionally, I assisted with art directing product photoshoots to weave fresh photography into the website and social channels. With the new photography, I also designed numerous Instagram and Facebook ads promoting brand awareness and product sales.

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—Website
The previous website was cluttered, lacked a straightforward user experience and was difficult for our client to manage. It was hosted on Wordpress and had a variety of issues in the back end—which ultimately led us to start fresh on a new platform. We switched to Shopify as it was more intuitive for our client to eventually manage on their own.

One challenge was selecting a template that was clean and simple to navigate, while also accommodating the functionality needed. Due to a limited budget, I had to select from Shopify's free templates, then inject custom CSS and install plug-ins to make any additional enhancements. I ended up going with a minimal, user-friendly template that was among the best for showcasing and highlighting products. It also has an efficient navigation system and filtering functionality, which was key as there were many sub-categories within the nav.

See the live site here.

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—Photography
In addition to the website revamp, I assisted with art directing a summer and fall photoshoot. The brand had never done any professional shoots prior, and there was a lack of people-focused photography that showed what the product looked like on someone. The goal was to have a bank of stylish images of people varying in age, wearing the product in organic scenarios. I scouted a location that felt natural and would work efficiently for both indoor and outdoor shots. The final result was a photography style that felt relatable and approachable.