Co-Founder · AvantGarde Brands · 2012 · DTC Skincare

A premium DTC skincare brand built to compete on design from day one

0→1

Fully owned brand - built from scratch

4 Outputs

Brand, packaging, campaign, eCommerce

DTC

Direct-to-consumer from launch

Peptide

Custom-formulated ingredient

Challenge

A category where the brand is the product

Premium skincare is one of the few categories where credibility, packaging, and visual identity drive purchase decisions as much as the formulation itself. A product can be excellent and still fail if the brand doesn't carry the visual weight expected at that price point.

SKN Labs was a fully owned brand, custom-formulated from the ground up, no white-label shortcuts and no existing equity to build on. Everything had to earn its place: the name, the positioning, the packaging, the campaign, and the eCommerce experience all had to work together from day one.

Approach

Scandinavian minimalism meets DTC precision

I built SKN Labs as the most complete brand AvantGarde had launched; designed and executed across every touchpoint, from identity system through to the physical packaging in a customer's hands. The positioning was Scandinavian-inspired: clean, confident, ingredient-led, and deliberately minimal.

Packaging was central. I designed the full jar and label system, sourced physical components to match the quality specification, and oversaw production, keeping the brand experience consistent between what the campaign promised and what the customer received.

Outcome

A launch-ready brand built to scale

SKN Labs launched successfully and validated strong product performance with its early customer base. The brand system, packaging, and eCommerce platform were built to scale. With additional investment, the platform had clear runway to expand significantly into a growing category.

SKN Labs represented the most brand-complete product AvantGarde Brands had built: custom-formulated, professionally packaged, fully designed, and sold as a wholly owned brand from day one. A proof that a small team with design discipline can build something that competes with established players on brand alone.

Brand & Identity Systems

The visual identity was built to communicate clinical credibility without feeling cold. I developed the full brand system including identity, typography, color palette, and brand guidelines applied consistently across packaging, print, digital, and campaign materials.

Full brand identity. Logo, color, typography, tone of voice, and brand guidelines
Packaging system. Jar, label, and outer pack design and supplier sourcing
Print-ready production files across all SKUs

website & Campaign e-Commerce

A direct-to-consumer web experience to capture organic and paid demand. I designed and built the front-end; a clean, editorial experience that presented the product from awareness to purchase. I also managed the campaign creative marketing platform (Limelight).

eCommerce front-end design and development
Product pages and checkout flow
Campaign creative.Digital and print assets, product photography direction
Digital and print campaign assets
CRM design and management

Summary

2010-2015 Affiliated marketing was very hot. There was a lot of money to be made if you knew the inns and outs. My partner was a known super affiliate marketeer. Thus with his marketing experience and my creatives we launched a few self owned product lines via AvantGarde Marketing. Even thou the creative here could look a bit dated (2013), at this time it was in line with what was happening.

To build your own product lines from scratch with sweat equity is scary but also very rewarding... if it works. I take pride in these older works as they were a real challenge without any safety, salary fallback.

A premium DTC skincare brand built to compete on design from day one

Let's build something that matters.