Skincare Brand Logos
It’s no secret I’ve been working at a medical spa as of late. When I graduated last year, it was just as COVID-19 quarantine and lockdown rules went into effect, so I didn’t really get the chance to job hunt the way I expected to. I’m grateful to have gotten this job, and while it wasn’t the dream job I wanted, it’s what I needed. And having what you need is a blessing in and of itself. And what I have right now, is a job at a medical spa that introduced me to all sorts of luxury skin care brands, their products, their parent companies, and more.
Our current audience consists primarily of middle age Asian women. These women are focused on making sure their skin looks young, so with that comes procedures such as Ultherapy and Thermage that help boost collagen production to smooth fine lines and lift sagging skin.
Ultherapy logo. The logomark is a goldenrod colored squiggly line that grows smaller and the logotype ‘Ultherapy’ uses a wide typeface with an extremely high x-height. The logotype is in a dark gray.
Thermage logo, along with the partial face of a white woman who models for Thermage. The Thermage logo is stylized in a lowercase partial serif font, and the ascender on the ‘h’ is much higher than the ascender on the ‘t’. There is a lotus flower-like brushstroke graphic that sits above the ‘age’ in ‘thermage. The logotype is in a dark purple, while the lotus flower graphic is in a lighter purple.
To me, while the logos do their job, neither really tell a story. I have absolutely no clue what the gold squiggle in Ultherapy is supposed to reference, beside possibly “the appearance of wrinkles decreasing over time.” The Thermage lotus flower? I dunno, possibly something about looking as beautiful as a flower?
I guess I’m just really fond of logos that tell a story. The current Xeomin logo does a much better job of it. (Fun fact, Xeomin is owned by Merz Aesthetics, the same folks who own Ultherapy.)
Xeomin logo. The ‘X’ in Xeomin is stylized as a magenta hand-drawn X, and part of the stylization makes it look like the marker was running out of ink while the X was being drawn. The rest of ‘Xeomin’ is in a bold black sans-serif font, all caps. The word ‘incobotulinumtoxinA’ rests underneath, and uses a wide sans-serif font with an equally tall x-height.
The Xeomin logo looks bold, in-your-face, and demands attention. It has the personality of a sharp-eyed well-dressed businesswoman who has no time for bullshit and will get the job done, even if it means having to do it herself. And most of the personality of the Xeomin logo comes from the stylized X. It feels a little rebellious, and the logo is not the wholly refined look one would expect from luxury.
The newest brand we’ve started selling at work is La Maison Valmont.
Valmont logo. The logomark and logotype is in a gold serif font, and uses an extremely tall small caps for the ‘almont’ in ‘Valmont’. The logomark consists of the capital V of Valmont, with a crown shape above it.
The Valmont logo is truly luxurious and refined. It commands attention, and it receives it. The representative from Valmont told us how the crown shape above the V calls back to the silhouette of the original building in Switzerland, and it also reflects the high-end ingredients in all Valmont products. It was at that building that all of classic Hollywood would go to for their pampering and skin care. Valmont has a legacy behind it and the logo carries that gravitas.
It’s pretty obvious where my preferences in these four logos lie. These biases also reflects how I try to design. My little catch phrase on this portfolio is ‘Eliot Leung = graphic designer + storyteller,’ after all. But I’m also wondering, am I simply being deaf to the story of Ultherapy and Thermage? Is there something between the lines I’m missing?
Ultimately, the story is lost right now. But who knows? Maybe I’ll find it one day. Meanwhile, I’ll be working at this medical spa.