Siegel+Gale Puts Fresh Face On Beauty Brand Birchbox

A startup pioneer online cosmetics retailer, Birchbox finds itself in an increasingly crowded space. To expand beyond their most loyal customers — the young beauty enthusiast — Siegel+Gale helped the company define a larger, underserved audience which it refers to as “The Beauty Majority”, i.e., the 80% of women who see beauty as a useful part of their lives but not core to their sense of self. From there, the design firm developed a visual identity to create a home for these individuals where perfection isn’t idolized and beauty is fun.

The look and feel is inspired by photo outtakes — not the selects, but playful doodles, not the final blueprints, but the beautiful imperfections. This resulted in patterns and graphic elements employing gestural brushstrokes and other “marks of the hand” to create an aesthetic that “celebrates what beauty really is.” In a possibly related matter, rumors are swirling that Birchbox may sell itself to Walmart, as the retailing giant continues to try to make inroads into e-commerce.