Made to celebrate and serve deeper skin tones with products specifically formulated for melanated complexions.
Brand Identity 🔗 Creative Direction 🔗 Packaging Design
The logo design prioritizes clarity and boldness. The word mark uses Alumni Sans—a geometric sans-serif with strong letterforms and excellent legibility across all applications. The color palette became the hero of the identity system. Deep burgundy serves as the primary brand color, supported by bright scarlet red. Both directly referencing the red undertones in melanated skin that the products enhance.
The packaging for Rufescent makes an immediate visual impact through bold graphic patterns and strategic color blocking. The brand name is debossed vertically along the package, adding a tactile, premium element that customers can feel during the unboxing experience. We chose a vertical orientation to ensures the branding remains legible from multiple angles on shelves or in grid-based social content. Material choices prioritize a matte finish that feels modern and luxe to the touch. Every box has a base color of the shade inside so the customer doesn't have to open or guess the shade.
The true validation of Rufescent's brand positioning came unexpectedly in January 2024, when cultural icon Erykah Badu wore the brand's Applebomb lipstick for the cover of D Magazine. Styled by Mike Phelps, a close collaborator who believed deeply in the brand's vision, Badu appeared on the cover wearing Applebomb layered with gloss. This organic celebrity endorsement proved the strength of the creative direction and product quality. It demonstrated that when you create something authentic for an underserved community, the culture recognizes and elevates it.
E-COM CREATIVE DIRECTION
For beauty photography, the direction emphasizes clean, bright lighting with simple white or soft-colored backgrounds to keep focus on the makeup and model's natural features. Expressions range from playful to confident, capturing genuine emotion rather than static beauty shots. photography direction embraces "still-life photography where you can get creative." Product shots utilize unexpected angles, plexiglass reflections, and atmospheric blur effects to create dynamic, editorial-quality imagery.
CHALLENGE:
The brand needed a complete identity system that would feel luxurious yet accessible, contemporary yet timeless, and most importantly, authentic to the community it serves. The challenge was to create visual language that honors the richness of red undertones in melanated skin while establishing a distinctive presence in both digital and retail environments.