A few thoughts on AI, bad branding and the importance of having something to say.
If anyone can use AI to generate creative work, why are there still so many ugly flyers out there? And why are approximately 50 beauty brands telling us they're "no filler, no fluff"?
We feel it’s important to let you know how we feel about this “unwavering next generation of technology in today’s ever changing world”.
We love AI for building out a quick mockup of your product, organizing our thoughts, and imagining what it would look like on the Sephora shelf, but we don’t really love it for actual thinking and brand building.
We've spent 15 years working in beauty. We've sat through the strategy presentations, the product development conversations, the naming debates and the campaigns that probably should never have made it out of the meeting room (so what we’re really saying is, we have taste).
There’s a reason you’re here, and it’s obviously because you care about your brand and you’re not interested in sourcing it out to AI.
We’re also cautious about warning our clients when it comes to feedback rounds and analyzing our deliverables—popping it into AI is likely to give you a generic dump of AI feedback slop. We’d rather get on a call and discuss it together, and problem-solve like humans have been doing for thousands of years.
BUILD BEAUTY AND AI.
Human-led, Always.
Our strategy, naming, positioning, verbal identity and creative direction are led by experienced people. Not generated by a prompt and presented as a finished strategy. Technology may support the process but it doesn't replace the judgment, cultural understanding or industry knowledge behind our recommendations.
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Chat Is Not Your Creative Director.
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We're interested in tools that make the process smarter. We're considerably less interested in work that looks like someone typed a brief into a chatbot and called it a strategy… (Otherwise, what are you paying us for??).
Your Brand Deserves a Brain.
AI or not AI, we don't believe in recycling the same positioning, language or creative ideas across clients. Every brand has its own unique propositions, so it shouldn’t look or sound the same as another.
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Generative AI is composed of patterns. These patterns are what causes so many brands to look, sound, and feel the same. What may have been best industry practice 10, 5, 3, even 1 year ago—may not be the same today (we miss this em dash we just typed). By researching and analyzing the outputs that AI commonly provides beauty brands, we have a centralized database of AI giveaways that we benchmark every deliverable against. The last thing you want is a tagline that shows up in 50 prompts and your customers to accuse you of using the technology.
Anti-generic thinking. Anti-every-beauty-brand-sounding-and-looking-like-it-was-developed-by-the-same-person. Anti-bad ideas. Anti-studio-with-no-beauty-experience.
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We Follow The Tech.
We Love a Mockup.
We love AI for building out a quick mockup of your product, organizing our thoughts, and imagining what it would look like on the Sephora shelf, but we don’t really love it for actual thinking and brand building. We’re cool with building you a prompt library and giving you guidance on AI do’s and don’ts. When it’s appropriate to use the tool, and what tools to avoid.
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