flourish
As a consumer, I like to be aware of what I am buying. Too often when making purchases, we are kept in the dark without realizing it. I learned this applied to many fields, including cosmetics. As I discovered more about the industry, I felt the need to be heard. My exhibition flourish advocates for clean beauty, meaning that the ingredients are made with consumers’ health and the environment in mind. As I continued my research, the more curious I became. Can I really trust the companies in front of me? Do the corporations really care about my health? You yourself are the only one who can make that judgement. However, did you know that the European Union bans more than 1,300 chemicals while the United States only bans around 11? This fact changed my whole world and I started to wonder why we were in this situation. All I could think about was how greedy corporations were being. This inspired me to look to clean beauty and create my own brand. I hope flourish opens viewers’ eyes to the reality before us.
For my process, I took my own photographs of my models and through the use of Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and Indesign, I was able to create the imagery and branding for flourish. I wanted my brand to reach my own demographic because most clean beauty brands weren’t advertising to my age group or younger in my opinion. I decided to have young models as well as come up with bold imagery and typefaces that coordinated and created a satisfying composition. Besides foundation, I did each model’s makeup in photoshop. Each poster is connected to a theme that portrays an aspect of nature and the environment. The ones I decided on were space, animals, water, crystals, and plants. This is what emphasizes flourish as being a clean beauty brand and its connection to the environment. The type of products I kept in mind when creating the ads were highlighter, eyeshadow, makeup remover, mascara, and lipstick. A brand manual is provided and explains with visual representation what a brand conveys. The brand manual I created truly makes flourish come to life. The brand manual includes all the components that make up flourish and shows the design decisions I made for my brand. I treated this as if I was creating a real clean cosmetic line and focused on how I wanted the brand to be viewed. Please feel free to take a look inside the manual and see what flourish is about. Viewers may also help themselves to free stickers!
The more I learn about the environment and health concerns in this life, the more annoyed I get. I’m only one person and I can’t change the whole world by myself. However, I hope that flourish prompts viewers to think. Please think about what you are putting on your face. Don’t stop at just cosmetics, continue to question corporations. We have a right to live healthy and avoid toxins in our everyday lives. Are our needs being met? Ignorance is bliss, but how much longer can we afford to be ignorant?