My Intentions

Through this project, I intend to create an extensive body of graphic design and creative work to show to potential employers in the future. I want to potentially enter the beauty industry during my marketing career so having a body of work where I specifically design products, product names, and logos will greatly assist me in this pursuit. I also want to create a makeup brand that is inclusive and impactful, meaning that my work will not be targeting a solely white audience like so many makeup brands do in this current market. I hope my project achieves these goals I listed above, and will keep these in mind as I continue to work through the project. 

My Impact

Although I do not think that this specific project will be shown to an extensive amount of people, I hope my work can live in the marketing and beauty space as an example of a new brand for Glossier that is representative of a new demographic that I argue Glossier should be marketing towards. Since one aspect of my project will be a proposal to why my brand should exist, I suppose there would be an impact through that where my work could potentially influence their brand (although this is highly unlikely). I hope I achieve a work that is positive, representative of many groups and perspectives, and shows my talent with graphic design and brand creation. 

Best/worst case scenario

My best case scenario for this project is that I am able to create a beautifully designed logo, mock social media account, and 3 products that articulate my design goals going into this project. It would be a project that is meticulous, creative, and well thought out. The project would also be representative of multiple identities, by creating products that are not gendered, or targeted towards any one race or community. 

The worst case scenario for this project would be not creating work that is representative of my goals going into the project. This would be doing design work that looks sloppy and lacks direction as well as an unclear vision surrounding my project that comes across to the viewer. A worst case scenario would also mean I fail to incorporate multiple perspectives into my design process and fail to recognize inclusive design principles. Failing to do so would mean my project would look unintelligent and it would lack diversity and inclusion morality. 

Personal identities, perspectives and lived experiences. Who might be missing from my project? How can I make sure they are included?

I am a straight, white, cis-gender, able-bodied individual meaning I am carrying those perspectives into my design process and design identity. I need to be extremely cognizant of these identities when designing for my project, especially my 3 makeup products that I will be showcasing designs and branding for. I know that through potential unintentional means, I will be designing with myself as a reference for these products because I will be considering what I would want in a product and how a product would look on my specific skin tone. Since I know I will be considering my own identity strongly as a reference for these projects, I’ll need to go out of my way to understand what people with other characteristics than myself would want to see in these products. I can’t design for every single person specifically, but I can try my best to make my products as inclusive as possible so that my product and brand would not be targeting one specific audience, and instead would appeal to many people. Doing this means I will devote myself during this project to inclusive design practices and involve myself in an extensive research process to understand the problems the beauty industry faces. 

The beauty community is known for not practicing inclusive design practices. Throughout its history, there have been countless instances of racist product design and a trend of designing for a strictly white audience by failing to create products for shades of skin that do not fall within a beige-tan skin tone range. Due to this background, I feel as though it is extremely important for me to research these mistakes the beauty industry has made and continues to make so that I can consciously avoid acting in similar ways. Black women, specifically, are an audience that is often forgotten about during marketing campaigns and product design. Here is a great article by David Baboolall, Tiffany Burns, Kristi Weaver, and Ammanuel Zegeye from Mckinsey & Company that articulates this struggle by describing the challenges that Black women face in the beauty industry. The writing describes the ways in which Black women make up an extremely large percentage of beauty consumers yet black brands are a small margin of revenue in the beauty industry. This industry is not fulfilling the needs of Black women when it comes to haircare, skincare, and makeup. There needs to be a more equitable beauty market when it comes to Black women. I am aiming to avoid making these same mistakes throughout my project, and will continue to research more to ensure I do better than what has been done.