Demo case study
Cosmetics 2024
Sanctum Skincare
A skincare range with nine SKUs and nine different design decisions. One system, specified for production, ready for the range to double.
5 to 1.4
Artwork revision rounds
Average per SKU, across the six products produced since
-6 weeks
Time to launch a new SKU
Compared with the two products launched before the system
14 to 5
Range palette
Distinct print colours specified across the range
Sanctum had added products one at a time over three years, each designed by whoever was available. On a shelf together they did not look like a range, and the two most recent products had cost more in artwork revisions than in design.
- Nine products with no shared system
- Artwork produced at the wrong specification twice, at the studio’s cost
- No guidance for the two new products already in development
- Copy on pack inconsistent about the same ingredients
- 01
Audit and rationalise
Laid out all nine, agreed what was worth keeping, and cut the palette from fourteen colours to five.
- 02
Design the system, not the packs
A layout grid, typographic hierarchy and colour logic that any of the range can be dropped into, including products that do not exist yet.
- 03
Production specification
Artwork templates specified with their printer, so revisions stop being a cost centre.
- 04
On-pack copy rules
A short set of rules for ingredient claims and tone, so the same ingredient is described the same way everywhere.
We thought we were buying nine redesigns. What we actually needed was one system, and they said so in the first meeting rather than the fourth.