Skin by Ann Webb / Skin Organics

Globally-recognized skin care company, Skin by Ann Webb (aka Skin Organics). This product line found its niche among natural foods stores like Whole Foods and Sprouts, which pride themselves on offering only clean products with carefully sourced, cruelty free ingredients.

This was a complete ground-up undertaking that began as an esthetician's daydream while in between jobs and caring for dedicated clients out of her home. Honestly, I didn't plan to take on this project. Little did I know it would be my first really big one, though. Yet, somehow, while listening to this caring, educated healer (my own esthetician at the time) talk about wanting to help more people by reaching a larger clientele with quality, affordable products, I was immediately hooked. By teaching her to think bigger (no paper bags and self-printed labels for us!), we took this fledgling spark of an idea and landed our goal account within two years: a regional Whole Foods account that would go national within the year. I will always be fiercely proud of what two girls functioning on very little sleep can accomplish. 

The AW logo incorporates the initials of the esthetician for which the product line is named, envisioning that it would someday live a life of its own without "Skin by Ann Webb" alongside it and everyone around the world would know its meaning. The addition of the city name beneath serves to both elevate the new brand to sit beside its future Paris, London, and NY counterparts, while also celebrating its roots in a town that prides itself on locally-made products. (I am a firm believer in that old saying "Dress for the job you want to have" and applying it to my clients' businesses... Think big. Then think bigger. Now make it happen. This kind of approach to all aspects of your company will keep you working towards your goals to realize the dream you gave a (brand) voice to, while spending less money on future re-workings of the image.)

Given that our dream product placement back in the early days of 2005 was the hallowed shelves of Whole Foods, we paid close attention to their criteria for clean ingredients and worked closely with our Dallas lab, doing plenty of our own research to determine how to keep the product line free of animal products (squalane, for instance was a fantastic cutting edge ingredient at the time, lauded for its ability to soften and moisturize the skin. But rather than source it from shark livers (ick!), why not use the version derived from pressing olives when making olive oil? The unit price difference for asking the lab to upgrade our formula for under eye cream to the plant derived oil was miniscule, but shutting ourselves out of our dream market was a price we couldn't afford to pay. (The fact that we were also making any ethically responsible choice was not lost upon us.) Big picture thinking was always hard at work for us.

The collateral materials, website, and product packaging are all clean, elegant, and use bold pops of color and luscious images. This line is all about affordable personal luxuries with a grounding in the natural sciences. We also took special care to play up the unique angle of this line being designed by an esthetician. Who better to know skin?