Sabrina Yavil, former executive director of global marketing at Clinique and director of strategy and planning at Bumble and bumble, is starting work on creating a new brand. As she kicks off the process, she’s thinking through how to identify a designer that makes sense for the look she wants for her self-funded brand and its budget.
Inspired by her designer search, for the latest edition of our ongoing series posing questions relevant to indie beauty, we asked 16 beauty entrepreneurs and executives the following questions: How did you find the designer or design agency you hired for your brand’s original design or rebrand? What criteria did you use to evaluate designers or agencies? How much did it cost to do your original design or rebrand? Is there anything you would’ve done differently?
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Nicol Varona Cancelmo Co-Founder, Ocoa Over the last two years, we have cultivated a network that helped us elevate our brand. We found our rebrand designer through a mentor referral. If you don’t have a mentor or referrals from your inner circle, interview a few candidates.
You can find great designers on Instagram, LinkedIn and Upwork. Try to work with someone who is open to having several revisions/flexibility, not just the standard cookie-cutter process. Ultimately, you have to follow your gut.
Visual direction is a key element for your brand that should resonate with the story and messaging. The main criteria we used to determine if the partnership would work was the designer’s approach to working with clients and the vibe after our first Zoom meeting.
We ended up working with Abby Haddican, who is simply the best designer because she works with her clients, not for them. That’s the best way I could describe our partnership.
She was able to work with us on our vision for the overall branding, packaging design and art direction wherever she could chime in, even after the bulk of the project was completed. Our relationship was not limited to just the initial proposal, which was a blessing for us as a growing brand. She was flexible with our changes and any additional requests. The branding cost us north of $10,000.
The only thing we would have done differently is not be so narrow-minded with our initial timeline. We originally planned for 3- to 4- month timeline. It turned out to be more like 8-to 9-month process. Great design should not be rushed at all. We are glad we learned to trust the process. The outcome was beyond our wildest expectations.
- Ciara Imani May Founder, Rebundle
For our rebrand, we leveraged a combination of designers within our network along with researching industry tastemakers who inspired us. We compiled a list of agencies and freelance designers to look for creative partners that could support a brand refresh, website optimization and updates to our packaging.
Of the 17 studios and independent designers we reached out to, the list was narrowed down to a selection of 5 potential partners with proposals that best aligned with our needs and budget.
We evaluated them on their artistic vision, estimated timeline for completion, and their chemistry with our team. We decided to move forward with freelance designer Julia Shao, who executed our rebrand and packaging design, Jonnell Boyd, who did our packaging engineering, and the agency Basis updated our website.
We spent around $30,500 working with our creative partners on the rebrand. Our goal was to elevate the overall look and feel while creating a seamless shopping experience for our consumers. It was important that our rebrand expanded on the identity of the existing brand, so we wanted to partner with someone who understood that.
Our process allowed us to narrow in on collaborative partners who worked with us closely to execute our vision. Without an internal alignment and a strong sense of brand identity, it would have been easy to lose sight of that vision and get swept up in another team’s creative direction.
- Jamie Greenberg Founder and Celebrity Makeup Artist, JamieMakeup
My husband owns a creative studio called Caveat. His partner, Evan Slater, is a genius and has done a ton of work in the beauty industry. They agreed to partner with me on JamieMakeup as part of an equity-for-service deal.
Evan and I spent a lot of time talking about our branding and ways to achieve a tone that matched my personality. It was important to us that JamieMakeup stand out from the majority of the cosmetics market, which in fairly demure, restrained and inaccessible.
He came up with the idea of hiring our amazing designer from Germany, Yeye Weller, to create the identity and support the package design of our first product, Blighlighter. We loved the playful, bright, bold nature of his work.
The estimated value of the services provided by Caveat was approximately $100,000 to $125,000 for the brand identity and first product. We then had additional expenses associated with Yeye and hard costs for support staff.
I'm really happy with the branding and design strategy for JamieMakeup. We're launching four new products over the next 12 months, and it's really exciting to see it all come together.
If I had to do anything differently, I would have raised a small amount of outside capital in the beginning of the process. This would have helped us move quicker and provide extra resources for my partners.
It's a big ask to have people working within an equity for service deal. Having a bit more cash to strategically spend on the important pieces of the puzzle like illustrators, graphic designers, expedited samples, 3D renders would have made the whole process a bit smoother.
- Aziza El Wanni Founder, The Potion Studio
I've been following different agencies for months before I started my outreach on Instagram. I had a clear vision on what I wanted my brand to look like. I've spent countless hours on Pinterest, Tumblr and Instagram to curate my perfect aesthetic.
Once I've solidified the overall idea, tone of voice, colors and target audience, I started following designers on Instagram, and I've observed them closely. I wanted to see their progress, and I wanted to get inspired. I've always loved a clean and simple aesthetic for beauty brands, so I wanted something that was timeless, but not too simple. The clean and simple beauty aesthetic has become very popular, so I was looking for a designer who would understand exactly what I was looking for.
I take pride in my products and my brand, and I wanted to create something for women of color that was different from what was already on the market. The designer I ended up working with understood exactly what I wanted and brought my vision to life.
Professionalism, someone that shared the same values as me and what my brand stood for [were criteria I used to evaluate designers]. Time played a huge part as well. I needed someone who delivered great work in a decent amount of time. I needed someone that would listen and bring my vision to life, but would also add their own twist to it, and I feel like we found the perfect balance, so much so that she ended up designing my website as well as other marketing materials.
I ended up going with Rise. In total, we've spent about $8,000, which includes label design, custom logo and fonts, postcard mockups, web design and templates.
- Therese Clark Founder, Lady Suite
I used to be a partner in a boutique creative beauty agency, so it was a bit easier for me. What I learned in seeing as many brands as we did was that the clearer the owners/founders’ vision, the more effective we were in creating strong concepts. It also helped when they had a sense of the market and when they didn’t want to look like another brand, even if they were crushing on another brand.
Agencies obviously range in price depending on the workload. If the agency has a few big brands under their belt, chances are their rates get more expensive. They usually grow their design team by then, which means more overhead agency costs.
You can expect to allocate $25,000 at the very low end for branding/design work if you come in with a clear vision. I’ve seen pricing from agencies starting at $150,000 for branding. The other route is to find a great freelance designer with less overhead that is willing to work at a lower rate. Not all designers want to work at agencies.
As far as finding a great agency, they should have their portfolio on display. It always bothers me when an agency doesn’t have a visually amazing website or IG and only shows one or two case studies. Other ways to find agencies are vie word of mouth, scouring articles, find out who is winning packaging awards, etc.
I also like to make sure there are multiple designers or at least multiple people involved in the concepting process so things don’t start to look same-y. Designers definitely develop their own unique styles over time. It’s hard for some of them to let go of that, which could be positive or negative if you want something revolutionary or disruptive.
I have worked with a few designers since leaving the agency, and it becomes obvious to me when it works and doesn’t. I will say it hasn’t always been easy. Lady Suite has colors where it can easily start to look like either Thanksgiving or Valentine’s threw up on everything.
I don’t regret anything looking back outside of having a bigger photography budget to be much more inclusive at the onset. Since this was a new category in a stigmatized space, especially back when we launched, I felt like the aesthetic worked, but has definitely evolved since then even without a major rebrand. I do expect another evolution when the time is right to prioritize diversity and inclusivity in a more profound way.
- Jana Blankenship Founder, Captain Blankenship
We interviewed many different agencies, but ultimately found the agency we worked with through a referral from a friend. I highly suggest your first step is asking within the community for agency recommendations and honest feedback. It will save you a lot of time.
We only vetted agencies whose aesthetic and website we felt drawn to, who had extensive experience in our industry, whose portfolio of work resonated with our vision for the brand refresh and who we could imagine working intensely with.
We ended up going with an agency called ByNinja in Australia for our branding, packaging design and website photo shoot. We interviewed many agencies and the vast differences in price were pretty astronomical. ByNinja was very reasonably priced compared to other agencies and was very hands-on throughout the process. Kathleen [Casford] and her team are such a joy to work with, and they really went above and beyond to hone in our vision for the brand refresh.
During the process, we were in touch over email and video meetings regularly. It was a very collaborative process, which resulted in the branding and packaging we wanted. They also gave us a beautiful brand guide we use every day.
It was also so wonderful to work with them on the photo shoot for our website. While it was winter in New York, it was summer in Australia, and we got the most beautiful product and lifestyle shots on the beach.
We worked with Oyl+Water to create our website. We had been following Rachel [Roberts Mattox's] work for years and had been referred to her by friends in the industry. The team at Oyl+Water did such a fantastic job of taking the assets from ByNinja and helping us bring them to life with web design and content. We really wanted the website to be as unique and experiential as possible, and they worked with us to integrate videos and lush imagery to our site in a beautiful way.
All in for the brand identity, packaging design, master content and website it cost us around $50,000. We were very happy with the branding, packaging design and website, but had issues with our bottles I wish we had foreseen. There are so many bottle and parts suppliers available today. We have noticed that quality is more of an issue since the start of the pandemic.
Make sure you know where your parts are being made, that the factory is reputable, and that you have a quality assurance process in place that includes a third party of your choice who will conduct testing upon delivery.
Additionally, think about lead times and any other risk factors that may impact delivery. Sometimes it is worth paying a little more to mitigate risk factors and lost sales.
- Ivonne Padilla Founder, Lujo Bar
We set out to find an agency with experience in brand development in the bath category. The beauty branding agency MSLK came highly recommended by our rep from the printing company we were using at the time. He told me they were really great to work with and had expertise in helping startup brands position themselves.
Although MSLK’s client list was slightly intimidating, I went out on a limb anyway and contacted them for a consultation. That email has been the most influential in crafting who and where we’ve been as a brand to date. The success of our partnership has definitely instilled in me a "just go for it" attitude when it comes to growing Lujo Bar. The answer will always be no if you never ask.
We chose to work with MSLK because they presented a comprehensive strategy to the rebrand that really helped Lujo Bar refine our identity and positioning. I was very impressed by MSLK’s market research and use of data and best practices to better inform strategy development and decision making.
They brought an inter-disciplinary and international team to the assignment I would never have had access to on my own. It wasn’t simply about making pretty packaging, it was about creating a package that represented for the consumer the product and its purpose through design.
After our consultation, MSLK made a number of recommendations on areas to tackle which they then helped us prioritize based on our budgetary needs. Once we reached an agreement on a strategy, we had made an investment that landed in the mid-five figures.
The work done with MSLK has been instrumental to our growth as a brand. In retrospect, the one thing I would have done differently was think bigger earlier in my business growth process. When we began the process, I very much approached it from the singular view of a package redesign.
The MSLK team gave me new perspectives in terms of lifting my own set of limitations and envisioning how we might maximize the redesign to do things like grow brand awareness, secure retail and brand partnerships, and otherwise exist within the white space.
- Laura Burget Co-Founder, Three Ships Beauty
We found our designer through a recommendation/referral from another founder. They had used the agency to do a rebrand, and we were impressed with their work. When it comes to new creative relationships, getting to know each other and their style first before committing was really important to us so we did a brainstorming exercise with the two founders.
We were blown away by how they thought through the brand as its own "person" and felt like they really understood what we were looking to achieve. To evaluate, we looked at their portfolio work as well as what level of experience they had with consumer brands in the past.
For us to do a full rebrand, including new packaging for 15 SKUs, was $15,000, which was an amazing deal versus the quotes from other agencies that we were speaking with.
Looking back, they were the right partner for us at the stage that we were at since we had such a limited budget, but I think that with where we are now we would use an agency that had more skincare-specific industry experience to guide our brand development.
- Morgan Sterns Creative Director, Cora
Cora’s current brand identity hasn’t been significantly updated since 2016. Our target consumer has evolved since our launch, and we want to ensure our brand speaks to her on a deeply emotional level. Over the last 18 months, we have shifted from a DTC-led to retail-led business, and our brand identity needs to evolve to this landscape. For example, our current packaging is not optimized for the retail environment.
We want to make an investment in a new packaging design that has lasting power on shelves and is cohesive with our overall brand identity. There’s a proliferation of new competition in the natural/organic fem care category with similar claims and offerings, challenging us to authentically and meaningfully differentiate.
We seek to develop a clear brand story with strong emotional resonance to communicate internally–Cora team, buyers, brokers and BOD–and externally to our consumers. We need to address some functional branding issues (logo scale, color accessibility, etc.)
Finding the right partner was key for us to execute a successful rebrand. We began the process by reaching out to about eight to 10 design agencies because we were a fan of their work and wanted to learn more about their teams, their approach to design, and their general interest in helping us solve a really exciting brand challenge.
We looked for best-in-class brand design; brand positioning; retail packaging capabilities; an advocate for the consumer above all else; a willingness to challenge our assumptions and push our thinking; creative problem solving; comfort with ambiguity, shifting timelines and working at pace; exceptionally strong project management and communication; a collaborative working style; and a strong interpersonal vibe and connection. We’re good people, and we want to work with good people.
We began the RFP process by designating five key buckets to evaluate each design firm:
Strategic Capabilities:
Do they have the proven ability to position or reposition a brand? Do they have the right approach to consumer research?Design Capabilities:
Is their design work unique, memorable and high quality? Do they have sufficient retail packaging experience?Collaboration and Process:
Is their collaboration style going to work for us? Are they going to be flexible when there are potential pivots during this process?Connection and Vibe:
Are they good humans? Would we want to be stuck on an elevator with them for hours?Fee and Timing:
Are we comfortable with their fee and the way they’ve structured their timeline?After we conducted stakeholder interviews, we narrowed down the search to five design agencies and had them pitch their rebrand strategies. It was a tough decision, but we ultimately ended up choosing Mother Design’s London office.
We made the decision to partner with Mother for the following reasons:
- Diverse female-led team with 25 years of agency experience
- Diverse perspective being non-U.S. based
- Family-first, value-led
- Strong strategic approach
- Understood modern cultural context and a brand’s role within it
- Very thorough preparation for the pitch, asked the most upfront questions on research and the consumer
- Equally as thorough follow-up calls
- Strong project management, planning and scope management, thorough project plan
- Transparency about why not to work with them
- Proposal and rate transparency and flexibility based on any scope decreases
- Access to additional capabilities (video, animation, PR, etc.)
- Agreed to onboard early
- Great interpersonal vibe
This was the seventh rebrand in my career, and no matter how capable the agency is, there are always pain points as you’re collaborating with many cooks in the kitchen under tight deadlines.
In my experience, there will always be challenges that arise between the internal team’s deep-rooted knowledge of the brand vs an outside agency's approach and perspective to a rebrand. The key is designating stakeholders from the beginning to ensure clear roles and responsibilities throughout the process.
- Sonsoles Gonzalez Founder and CEO, Better Not Younger
The most crucial decision you will ever make when creating a brand is choosing the agency that will build its identity. How the brand looks, feels and consistently shows up is what will first grab the customer’s heart and generate the first set of emotions.
At Better Not Younger, we chose a branding agency, Dear Future, not just a design agency. This is a very critical distinction. The brand story needed to be crafted first via the uncovering of insights, and a clear understanding of our mission and our values.
Interestingly, we did not choose an agency with expertise in beauty. In fact, at the time, they had zero experience working in the category. In a way, this brought different thinking to the table.
A good agency is not cheap, but without the right one your brand may never stand out. Since we were bootstrapped, we offered them a compensation based on cash plus equity. Being real owners with skin in the game created a relationship that’s beyond the typical agency-client exchange. In a way, they are co-founders of Better Not Younger.
- Keta Burke-Williams Founder, Ourside
I was advised by a mentor, Shibisha Johnson, that an agency should bring my ideas to life, but that partnership typically works best when the brand/ founder has spent time getting to the heart of why they exist.
So, I spent considerable time and energy into pre-work to get down to that nucleus of why it was so important for me to build Ourside, and what I hope people feel when they encounter us and our scents.
I did a lot of research beforehand. I looked to brands in other industries that I admired, asked for word-of-mouth referrals from my network and looked for agencies who were very strong in developing visual identities because I knew I wanted Ourside to stand out and be bold.
In addition to evaluating other brands they partnered with, I spoke with various agencies over multiple weeks and sometimes months to get a feel for the team, their approach to the iteration and partnership process, and more.
In addition to evaluating cost and timing, I asked for case studies to learn what the agency had a hand in and an example of how projects run from start to finish. I evaluated their willingness to listen and ask questions based on my unique responses rather than regurgitating something I didn't ask for. I also knew I wanted an agency that was willing to push me and ask the hard questions, so that's something I evaluated as well.
We ended up partnering with Some Days, and I'm so glad we did! They have gone out of their way to partner with us and bring our true point of difference to life.
- Jill Biren Co-Founder, JB Skrub
We approached the creative for JB Skrub from a different perspective. Our goal was not to appeal to our own aesthetic, but to resonate with a young pre-teen/teen consumer.
Our sons were our in-house focus group. They were inspired by streetwear brands and beverage brands.
We initially interviewed traditional designers who specialized in beauty, but they gravitated to what we traditionally see: simple logos, monochrome minimalistic packaging and a familiar font.
We then reached out to a beverage creative designer who ultimately did not have the capacity to take on our job, but made the introduction to Matt [Titone] and Ron [Thompson] of ITAL/C studio in Los Angeles. The team had never designed for a beauty brand but was up for the challenge and could relate with our young male consumer.
One learning from our journey was including the designer early on during website development. Handing a brand book over to a web team is not enough to execute a brand’s web vision. Looking back, we would not change our approach to selecting a designer.
- Lejla Cas Founder, Knesko Skin
We created the first version of our logo using 99designs and then found our current art director via the platform Behance. Based on his portfolio, we felt he could represent our brand well and he brought the brand unification that we were looking for.
[The evaluation criteria involved] quality of the work, use of empty space, colors and whether it felt "luxury" or not. The agency we use is our own little secret because we love them so much. We use them so often that they're pretty much employees in another country.
The original logo, which was later redesigned, was done for about $100. We rebranded using our current art director for about $1,000.
It’s an evolution. We might look back at our designs five years from now and say, "What were we thinking?” But brands have to start somewhere and naturally change and grow over time. We are always looking to enhance and see that as a positive.
- Abigail Cook Stone Founder and CEO, Otherland
My advice to founders looking for a designer is to find a brand they really love and do some digging to find out who or what agency created it. You can check tagged posts on Instagram for clues on the designer or search on creative portfolio sites like Behance.
Once you have a few names in mind, set up some introductory calls. In these meetings, since you're at the pre-launch stage, remember that you are not just evaluating them, but also pitching your business as a worthy project for them to put their creative firepower behind. The more excited you can get them, the more leverage you can create in negotiating a scope of work (at a time when you might not have much at all).
Evaluate the designer or agency on their creative process: What does the process look like? What are the points at which you can provide feedback? Who will be your main point of contact? If you also need say web or industrial design or copywriting, are those services offered in-house or will they need to be open to collaborating with a different agency?
If funds are tight (as mine were!), take your pitch to the next level and see if the designer or agency will trade services for equity. It takes time to build these relationships, so be persistent and as upfront if it's something they would ever consider doing.
I worked with agency Red Antler on this, and it was one of the best decisions I made in starting the business. They were able to support our launch almost as an additional co-founder during a very tender and young stage of the business.
- Akilah Releford Founder and CEO, Mary Louise Cosmetics
I found designers for our rebrand through an advisor I was working with at the time. I believe investing in a designer or agency to help you solidify your brand aesthetic, positioning and how you show up in your industry is a process that can't be rushed.
I selected the designers based upon how quickly they were able to grasp my vision of the packaging and how well we're able to communicate to our target consumer through the new design.
When searching for a new branding/ design agency, I would also recommend that founders ask for referrals and conduct thorough due diligence before making such a significant investment.
- Krystal Vaquerano Co-Founder and Creative Director, Somebody
When we first started Somebody in 2017, my fellow co-founder Marie [Arlet] and I lead product design in-house. We came up with our packaging design ideas, and we really worked together as a team.
We both executed the designs because it was a huge undertaking and we both have design backgrounds. I held the role as creative director, and as time went on, Marie shifted into operations while I took on a bigger role in packaging and visual design at the company.
As we grew, we did hire freelance designers. We worked with talented artists like Sydney Kleinrock and Adriana De la Torre, and the biggest thing we looked at when hiring was their portfolios. We did not necessarily look for packaging design experience, we looked at their art and designs and whether it aligned with our aesthetic.
We also ensured they had a background in Adobe Suite programs, which we knew would be needed for packaging design. We knew these talented artists could execute in packaging design if they could execute in other art realms and had the software knowledge. It is funny because everyone we previously hired (unknowingly) had fashion design backgrounds, which Marie and I also have.
I think having an in-house designer makes everything a lot easier and smoother. It also provides a lot of cost savings since hiring full-time designers can get very expensive. If you have the capabilities for someone in-house to take on that role, those skills can move outside of packaging design and towards marketing and web design. It also allows your brand to aesthetically tell a story and be more cohesive.
If you don't have someone to fill that role there are outside resources like Upwork, Fiverr or Craigslist, which are great for finding talented artists.
If you have a question you’d like Beauty Independent to ask beauty entrepreneurs and executives, please send it to editor@beautyindependent.com.
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