Client requests timeless branding based entirely on current design trend

In trend-setting branding news, boutique skincare founder Sophie Delacroix, 43, has reportedly instructed a branding agency to create a "timeless" identity for her new skincare range using as little text as possible and "one of those really nice sunset gradients everyone has at the moment."

The request came during a two-hour discovery workshop where Delacroix repeatedly stressed her desire to build "a brand that won't date," before presenting a moodboard made up almost entirely of minimalist skincare brands launched within the last eighteen months.

Creative Director Matthew Ellis, 41, said every reference featured an oversized sans-serif logo, pink-to-orange-to-purple gradients, generous white space and packaging that "looked expensive despite saying almost nothing."

"She said she wanted consumers to instantly understand what the products do," Ellis explained.

"Then asked if we could remove every descriptive word because it looked cleaner."

Agency staff said the workshop reached a turning point when Delacroix described gradients as "the new beige" before insisting her brand needed to avoid looking like everyone else's.

"She was adamant about being distinctive," Ellis said.

"Unfortunately every second slide was another bottle fading from coral to purple with the product name in Helvetica. We suspect it was made with ChatGPT."

The brief also requested the logo be "quiet but confident," the packaging "premium but approachable," and the identity "minimal without looking too minimal."

Brand strategist Nina van Wyk, 38, said the contradiction is becoming increasingly common.

"People have started believing that removing information from packaging automatically adds brand equity. The result is consumers standing in pharmacies trying to work out whether they're holding sunscreen, moisturiser, facial cleanser or magnesium spray."

At the time of publication, Delacroix rejected the agency's first concepts for looking "too similar to other skincare brands," before attaching seventeen Pinterest references and asking if they could "head more in this direction."

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