GirlyPop Gas Station

GirlyPop Gas Station is the first of many brand new establishments inspired by the messaging and aesthetic of The Barbie Movie to create more safe spaces for women across the state of California, beginning in Malibu and spreading across the coastline and interior of the state to offer a safe travel stop and tourist destination for female travelers and women on the go. These locations would be run and operated women, promote gender equality, and serve as both gas stations and rest centers for travelers with state of the art, high end restaurants and fast food options along with cafes and coffee shops for the early-bird drivers. These locations would provide jobs to women and members of the LGBTQ+ community who are struggling to find long term employment, and offer far higher wages than the ordinary gas station, programs to support higher education, scholarship opportunities, employee benefits such as childcare and medical support, and more so that all employees can build the life they need to truly thrive.

The Inspiration

Barbie has long been the feminist icon that has defined the journeys of women all over the world. She’s independent, career driven, determined, kind, generous, and stands up for others, all while being unafraid to embrace femininity, fashion, and summer fun. It’s extremely obvious why such an icon formed the philosophical core and visual identity inspiration for this initiative. Like other gas stations, each location will support a centralized rewards program that customers can redeem for discounts on gas, free food, and other deals. The initiative will also include a fully functional location map and mobile app for travelers to find stations during their journeys, wherever they may be going. Each location is owned and operated by women. Employees have the opportunity to work from the ground up from working in service jobs to management and ownership positions within new locations and branches, from inventory management and supply chain data analysis to accounting, coordinating, and HR positions, providing employees with experience in multiple career fields if they wish to transition to another career path outside of the company. At its core, this project aims to empower and celebrate femininity in unlikely places, and the strength of women.

Be SHE.

The core value and motto that GPGS seeks for customers and employees to embody is the idea of Be SHE. SHE is not just a pronoun, it’s an acronym with hundreds of meanings, all of which can be embodied and expressed through this project to empower women around California, whether they be worker or traveler. The idea of Be SHE transcends race, age, and background. Everyone has a person they strive to be, and that is the goal of GirlyPop Gas, to help women become the SHE they want to be.

Building the Brand

The GirlyPop brand identity is a blend of the pink, poppy, feminine energy of barbie and the bold, over the top, youthful energy of Y2K aesthetics and styles. Together, the blend results in something iconic, playful, feminine, and punchy. Several ideations were posed for how to best emanate the Barbie Brand inspiration without coming off as a direct copy of Mattel while utilizing pinks, blues, location based iconography, and an early 2000’s pop.

The Chosen Logo

The Full Logo Suite

Brand Illustrations

Inspired by the illustration style of the Barbie brand, a full set of illustrations was developed to create brand pattern designs, assets for signage and print materials, designs for location based merchandise, and to further cement the brand into its Y2K roots. Two primary patterns were designed, one themed around the California coast and beaches, the other around traveling throughout the state, national parks, adventuring, and being outdoors. This simple set of illustrations forms the basis of all the merchandise for GPGS locations, food and beverage packaging, and memorabilia items.

Station Locations

GirlyPop Gas began in Malibu, extending its reach across the California coast, then inward to the rest of the state, alongside national monuments and state parks, busy highways and freeways, and towns both big and small. GirlyPop gas is constantly expanding, and aims to expand beyond its current 25 locations to more rural ones where jobs are needed. Additional logos and branding were created for each of the starter 25 locations to designate them from the mainstream brand and build a stronger connection with the location itself. Eventually, GPGS aims to have at least one station located in every county in California.

Location Merchandise

Interior & Exterior Signage & Station Design

Signage, Wayfinding, Advertising, and Marketing collateral was developed for the stations along with location based graphics for the physical pumps, the station canopies, windows, and more. Beach imagery and the beach brand illustration set are used heavily in the design of the stations to best match their physical locations.