I created Pin Living Color in 2016 as an online gift shop selling items reminiscent of 90s black pop culture. From TV characters, hit songs, and cult classic movies, I put faces and sayings on pins, patches, t-shirts, mugs, keychains, and more.

Enamel pins’ popularity resurfaced over the last few years, but I was somewhat surprised at the lack of black creators in the space. There’s a niche for just about every interest, except for what my friends and I loved and enjoyed growing up.

Pin Living Color was included in several monthly subscription boxes, including Issa Rae’s quarterly gift box. The brand was featured on Blavity, Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, and Essence.com.

I learned so much about e-commerce in the 2 years I ran the online shop, from great advertising successes, to epic inventory failures.

Since Pin Living Color was focused on 90s black pop culture, the brand personality was very much nostalgic for the good ol’ days:

• Regular references of memorable events from the 90s
• Lots of meme and gif usage, specifically related to the characters and songs the products were created after
• Making every Instagram commenter feel seen and heard by liking and replying to their comments

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Tools Used