Playke Metal Art: Launching an Innovative Product During the Pandemic
This was Playke's challenge: a startup and AFIXGRAF subsidiary with an innovative idea—metal wall art with a unique magnetic mounting system that did not damage the wall. I was the designer responsible for creating the brand identity and managing its entire digital and product presence.
The Challenge
The product was an innovation: a frame that did not require drilling into the wall. It used a unique system of magnets and adhesive strips that allowed installation on any smooth surface, making it ideal for rental properties. More than that, it was a high-resolution UV print on metal that allowed people to quickly change the artwork by simply removing one frame and placing another on the magnet.
The biggest challenge was not only aesthetic, but educational. It was late 2020, in the middle of the pandemic. We needed to convince customers stuck at home during lockdown that they could renew their space without drilling, in a practical and high-quality way. My mission and my team's mission was to translate this innovation into trust and desire.
The Foundational Designer
The project began with a rebrand and a new administration. I started by leading that workstream, creating the new logo and initial visual identity. After delivery, I was hired as the in-house designer responsible for the project.
I acted as the startup's lead designer, responsible for every design front. It was a 100% remote, transcontinental environment across Brazil, the United States, and Canada, and my responsibilities covered everything an early-stage startup needs:
- Branding: Logo, contract stationery, and certificate of authenticity.
- Product: Packaging design and user manuals—critical pieces focused on teaching people how to install the product.
- E-commerce (Shopify): Platform management, banners, product photography, and foundational work such as SEO optimization, alt text, and conversion-focused UX Writing.
- Digital Marketing: All visual content for social media (static and video), seasonal campaigns, and paid ads (Facebook/Instagram Ads).
It was almost three years of exploration and results, growing a social channel to 12,000 followers during the pandemic.
Brand Positioning and the First “User Research”
The first year was about defining who we were. The initial idea was to number the frames and create limited series. But at that exact moment, the NFT market exploded. We brought together the founders and more than 30 partner artists (stakeholders) and made a strategic decision: we abandoned numbering. We understood that NFTs would be distorted by speculation, while our positioning was the opposite—we wanted art to be accessible to everyone, on a great canvas: Playke.
After a year and a half in business, we held our first in-person meeting. That meeting became our first collaborative user research session. Surrounded by notes on the office glass, we defined a new product backlog:
- Create an Artist Area on the website to track orders.
- Rework the website imagery entirely into a more Google-friendly format.
- Give the blog more attention to increase inbound traffic and improve ranking.
The learning curve was huge. Managing a Shopify e-commerce operation was new to me. I had to learn and standardize many rules at scale, from image production to compliance with international accessibility laws such as Canada's ACA.
The Post-Pandemic Pivot and Playke 22
When lockdown ended, we faced the challenge that would change everything. Our numbers began to fall as people started leaving home. We needed to innovate to survive. That was when we launched Playke Personalizado (Playke 22).
The idea was to pivot from decorative art to emotional memory: people could send their own photos for a 22 × 22 cm frame. This opened an entirely new business, and we secured relevant sponsorships. At the end of that year, we changed our organizational methods, moving from spreadsheets to Kanban and Asana.
Tests, “Leap of Faith” Decisions, and Innovation
In the third year, with a larger marketing team, we began actively collecting feedback through email marketing. The website was updated, the installation manual was rewritten based on that feedback, and the installation kit was improved.
We noticed something crucial: posts featuring real people converted better. This led us to launch two paid video campaigns for an A/B test:
Animation (“Mauro”): An animated 2D character presenting the classic narrative: Problem, Frustration, Idea, Solution (Playke), and CTA.
Explainer (Real Actor): An actor showing the product and how to install it on the wall, directly.
The result was a crossroads: the animation had the highest view rate, but the real actor delivered the best conversion. This raised the question: should we focus on popularizing the product (branding) or selling now (conversion)?
We decided to pursue both paths. I began studying 3D animation to produce a new installation video combining 3D and real actors, and we shifted our focus to short videos (TikTok, Reels, Shorts).
The truth is that a startup's future is uncertain. As the book “The Lean Startup” argues, we needed to take several “leaps of faith.” With a low budget, many MVPs went straight to market. But it was difficult to know what was working when the numbers were not in the thousands, but in single digits. We hoped for feedback at a time when the trend was to “leave the house and touch grass.”
We continued to innovate: we launched frames with printed texture and new sizes. With our 3D knowledge, we were developing an augmented reality (AR) filter for Instagram that would let people “try” the frame on their own wall.
Then a new challenge appeared: copyright. As the campaigns grew, we discovered that artwork from partner artists did not fall under Fair Use when it depicted famous characters. We had to remove successful artwork, and I became very concerned about the company's direction.
Startup Lessons (The End of the Cycle)
“At the end of 2023, Playke closed its cycle.”
It was an ending filled with unrealized ideas but also immense validated knowledge. The truth is that a startup's future is uncertain. We took several “leaps of faith.” Many MVPs went straight to market with a low budget, and with sales in the single digits rather than the thousands, it was difficult to know what was really working.
The company closed through a combination of factors that reflect the reality of entrepreneurship in Brazil:
Time-to-Market: The world changed too quickly. The pandemic that helped us launch also hurt us on the way out.
Technical Product-Market Fit: The product was excellent, but it required a very smooth wall. Grafiato and other textures common in Brazil prevented adhesion and limited our audience.
Cultural Product-Market Fit: We were competing for a shrinking share of Brazilian household budgets during inflation. Investing in digital art for decoration was not a priority. We discovered that the niche we reached sometimes cared more about what was displayed—the character—than about the quality of the product—the metal.
Today, I see it as a timeless product that perhaps was not right for the Brazilian market at that moment. I left with deep experience in e-commerce management, UX, SEO, and branding, and, most importantly, the resilience needed to pivot a business during a crisis.
