midsummer skin

midsummer skin approached Absolute Web with product in hand, but no name, no packaging, and no brand.

Through the discovery process, we learned that the skincare collection was a passion project in response to a personal event that happened at the founder’s youth. As a Brazilian, the founder had a story of running away to find freedom in the middle of summer. Her passion was to share the meaningful lessons she learned, the nostalgia and happiness of summertime, and healing through self-care and science. We began the story with the name “midsummer” and continued to tell it through brand development, package design, and content production.

The Challenge

The creative team set out to develop a brand that both felt whimsical, fun, yet smart and informed. The “skintellect” was highly considered throughout the process.

We had to create a brand that conveyed the message of solid scientific backing, while also giving the whimsical and nostalgic “summertime feeling.” A multi-faceted, dynamic brand that in lots of ways, represented the founder’s story.

Our Approach

The creative team took a science-first approach while also favoring fun visuals and messaging. The concerns of a dynamic-woman were kept in mind.

Using our learnings in the brand discovery and research phases, we set out to develop a brand that educated woman about skincare in an approachable way, while also appealing to the nostalgia and whimsy of summertime. Ultimately, fostering a community around the brand that is as diverse, strong, beautiful, and dynamic as women are.

Brand Development

We built midsummer’s brand personality to be dreamy, savvy, confident, and best friend-like. The fruity color-palette gives a sense of summertime, while also allowing us to organize the line in a visually chromatic way. The clean typography aids the eye to see the full picture vs just pieces of it.

Package Design

The 6-sides of the box were seen as an opportunity to create different photographic angles. Visual depth is easily portrayed when the full product line is put together displaying different “angles”, colors, and sides. In addition to color and angle diversity, the midsummer “loop-line” connects when all of the boxes are lined up side-by-side, creating an easy, yet whimsical visual merchandising moment for easy shelf appeal. More than that, both the “loop-line” and color of the packaging, aligned the products by regimen helping to simplify the customer’s understanding of which products work best together and for what purpose.

Content Creation

Early on, we decided that midsummer’s brand visuals would contain a mixture of animation, illustration, creative and lifestyle imagery, and non-traditional product photography. We saw it as highly important for the brand to have dynamic visuals that cohesively supported the brand feeling and messaging on all platforms and collateral. Through set styling, we developed imagery that supported the messaging of science-first while also maintaining the feeling of summertime whimsy and nostalgia. We did this by incorporating science glassware with natural plants, flowers, fruits, and veggies.

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