Email Layout Designs
Project Scope
Caleres serves as the parent company for nine distinct footwear brands, each with unique brand identities and customer bases. As a client of Wunderkind, Caleres expressed concerns about contract renewal due to dissatisfaction with the limited shopping functionality.
This project involved a comprehensive redesign of emails across Caleres' brand portfolio. The deliverables included eight distinct email types per brand (72 total emails):
• Two welcome email sequences
• Three abandonment email campaigns (category, product, and cart abandonment)
• Three catalog-driven emails (back in stock notifications, low inventory alerts, and price drop alerts)
The redesign addressed Caleres' specific feedback by incorporating elements from their existing "Batch and Blast" email campaigns while maintaining each brand's unique visual identity. Key strategic decisions included:
Brand Integration: Preserved the distinct branding elements of each of the nine footwear brands while creating visual cohesion across the emails.
Enhanced Shopping Experience: Introduced a novel "shop by size" functionality—a first-time implementation for Wunderkind that directly addressed the client's request for improved shopping capabilities.
Loyalty Program Integration: Developed promotional banner sections highlighting each brand's loyalty program, filling a gap identified in their existing internal communications.
Template Unification: Created a scalable template system that could be efficiently adapted across all nine brands while maintaining brand-specific customization.
This project coincided with Figma's release of the Variables Library feature, which proved instrumental in streamlining the design process. By creating a comprehensive variable library with separate modes for each brand, the template system enabled rapid brand switching and significantly reduced production time through automated brand application across design elements.
While Caleres ultimately chose not to renew their contract, the project served as a successful proof of concept for enhanced email functionality and demonstrated advanced proficiency with Figma's new Variables Library system. The work established a new standard for multi-brand template management and introduced innovative shopping features that could be applied to future client engagements.
Designs, Components, and Assets
When a prospective customer signs up to receive emails from a client, I send a welcome email. The purpose is to give users an introductory "handshake" to the brand. Welcome emails are designed to emphasize brand identity and voice. They build brand affinity and encourage users to follow through with their buying journey. The overall layout of the email takes a similar form to abandonment emails so that there is consistency in design across all the emails the customer will receive.
For each of the nine brands under the Caleres umbrella, I created components for each of the email sections. This included CTA buttons, icons, product cards, and entire section blocks.
Figma released their Variables Library tool just in time for this project. I created a single library for Caleres and filled in a mode for each of the nine child brands using their unique colors, buttons, typography, and styling.
I applied the variables to the components and put the components together to build each of the email types.
I grouped the email layouts in a section within Figma, duplicated the section, then toggled the variable mode to reflect a different brand. I updated the images for the hero sections, product grids, and brand stories for each of the nine brands.
