The rationale for the design, explained succinctly: This was our first time working in the colour cosmetics category, and the category was overcrowded with some great brands. Our client, like all start ups had finite resources, and had to be prudent with expenditure. Great formulations took up most of our product & packaging budgets and so the burden of distinction came on to the design team. We strategically identified the levers that we could use to distinguish ourselves from the sea of brands that existed. Our bigger challenge was to make our product stand out amongst the other 1000s of thumbnails that existed in the digital landscape of e-commerce. We realised our product needed to look different, massively different. However, we didn’t have the budgets to invest in expensive customised moulds. We dived deep into understanding how the brand created those formulations, what their parameters were. We wanted to know their intentions, and articulate not just their vision, but be convinced of their philosophy. It didn’t take much because a lot of their inception was based on some pretty fundamental problems that existed in the market. 1. Natural makeup is usually low on efficacy, and looks ‘rustic’. Somehow the high-on-fashion aspect is compromised. 2. Why should the effective and stylish brands be harmful to your skin? 3. Why can’t we keep makeup on all day without worrying? 4. Why is it perceived that only natural makeup is good for you? 5. There’s always a trade off. If I choose a natural brand, it’s not stylish, nor effective. If I choose a glamorous brand, it harms me. We helped reign it all in, add order to what was an organic and instinctive process of product development. Once we pinned down who our consumer is, our brand foundation (key), we proceeded to define our brand pillars, and product development guidelines. The three cornerstones of the brand were inspired by the following statements: 1. Makeup has to be impactful, and effective. It has to be functionally 100% on point. 2. Makeup has to be glamorous. What is beauty without trends? 3. Our product has got to be good for you, and kind to your body. We must be a mindful brand, both, towards our customers and also to the environment. We worked with the Kiro team closely to understand product manufacturing technology, and devised a graphic signature print that represented our values. This helped us use off-the-shelf moulds for our product. The brand identity was designed to be dynamic, similar to the brand ethos, and what you see here is their launch colour palette which will change with the introduction of newer collections and products in the future. As a brand, we want to break monotony, be innovative, and introduce new formats and formulations. This identity reflects that dynamism that the brand promises. It keeps things fresh and on-trend, which is appropriate for the category. Once we created this signature print, it would have been easy to stick that on everywhere, but we wanted to create an experience while unboxing the product. We chose to use our graphic pattern sparingly. Our secondary cartons have a tactile version of the print, and we colour blocked the sides to each of our colours so that we could use that to draw attention when we go to physical retail in the future. Every aspect of the brand’s communication was carefully considered to work as a whole. Every touch point was validated against our brand values and was designed to be customer-centric, be it the photography, our tone of voice in the writing, the key-messaging on the website and it’s design. It helped that our entire team was potentially the audience, so we all had our personal experiences addressed while creating this brand.

Designer : Studio Glyph