The French Beauty Academy Transforms a Training Provider Into a Luxury Brand
The Background
The Gold Coast Training Academy had a solid reputation in beauty training. But when Sherelle and Alan French took ownership, they saw something bigger than a training provider. They wanted to build a brand that felt aspirational, sophisticated, and distinctly French.
The academy was already doing good work. The team had put serious effort into raising the standard of service and training. What hadn’t caught up was how the business looked and felt from the outside. The name, the identity, the website, and the marketing materials all belonged to the previous chapter. The new chapter needed its own visual language.
The Challenge
A rebrand is more than a new logo. The French Beauty Academy needed a complete identity, a website built around driving enrolments, a corporate brochure, and photography that captured the new direction. All of it needed to feel cohesive, all of it needed to work together, and the timeline was tight.
The photography was the hardest part to get right. Beauty is a visual industry and generic stock imagery wasn’t going to cut it. The brand needed original photography that captured a specific feeling: understated, polished, pared-back French beauty. That meant art direction down to the shade of white on the models’ clothes and the exact positioning of hair braids.
Our Approach
The work started with the brand itself. We worked closely with the Academy team to develop the French identity, building on the new ownership’s vision and finding ways to express it across every touchpoint. The Gold Coast Training Academy logo was incorporated into the new branding so the established reputation carried forward while the new direction took shape, with a plan to phase it out gradually.
From there, the website was designed around what mattered most to the business: enrolments. Navigation was structured so prospective students could find course information quickly. Content was laid out with clear calls to action at every decision point. The visual design let the photography do the heavy lifting rather than competing with it.
The photo shoot was a full Mettro production. Our team managed the art direction, styling, model selection, and every detail of the shoot. The goal was images the Academy could use across everything, not just the website but the brochure, social media, and future marketing. Getting it right in one shoot meant the brand would have a consistent visual library from day one.
The Results
The website and rebrand won two Interactive Media Awards: Best in Class for Beauty/Cosmetics and Best in Class for Training/Vocational.
More importantly, the Academy had a brand that matched the business it had become. The photography gave them a library of original images that carried the brand across every channel. The website drove the enrolments the business needed. And the relationship continued beyond the initial project.
“Mettro really took the time to get to know our business, to understand our philosophy and our objectives. They were business-focussed and strategic. The photography we produced together perfectly captures the sophistication of the Academy. We use the images in all our collateral. Mettro’s branding, website and collateral have helped reposition our brand and take us to the international stage.”
Angie Kleeman, Director, The French Beauty Academy
Looking for a Rebrand That Actually Changes How People See Your Business?
The French Beauty Academy’s website has since evolved beyond our original build, but this remains one of our favourite projects. Great people, a clear vision, and the kind of creative collaboration that reminds you why you got into this work in the first place. We couldn’t leave it out of the folio. If your business has outgrown the brand around it, we’d like to hear about it.
