Hourglass

A mascara called CAUTION, taken at its word.

Hourglass2018

The gold CAUTION Extreme Lash Mascara on black with shards of broken glass

The briefHourglass

Watch what happens. Then proceed with caution.

Teaser, July 4 to 11→ Create curiosity: Watch what happens

Build, July 12 to 19→ Build anticipation: Proceed with caution

Launch, July 20 to August 3→ Spark trial

Maintain, ongoing→ Deepen interest

The two taglines and four phases of the CAUTION 360 marketing strategy, March 20, 2018.

In 2018 I was creative director of Hourglass, and we launched CAUTION Extreme Lash Mascara in collaboration with the agency Hugo & Marie. Our 360 plan of March 20, 2018 ran in four phases from July 4: teaser, build, launch and maintain, and took the daring name at its word with caution signage, tape and a seal across outdoor, social, the website, the PR mailer and retail. The same year I worked on Hourglass Cruelty Free Beauty, pairing a human eye with a horse’s.

ClientHourglass

RoleCreative director

Year2018

ProjectsCAUTION Extreme Lash Mascara launch, Cruelty Free Beauty

ServicesCreative direction, brand strategy, visual identity, packaging, graphic design, website design, social media, copywriting

AgencyHugo & Marie: campaign photography, illustration, film and layouts

PhotographyDavid Hughes

Director of photographyJack Shanahan

Part ICAUTION

Beware of extreme lashes

In which a product name becomes a warning sign.

With Hugo & Marie we built the campaign imagery and layouts in January 2018: luminous eyes coming out of shadow, gold product and art stills of strange objects, on a modular grid that runs as one poster or a whole wall. CAUTION sits where the eye looks: in the pupil and on the lid.

Close-up of an eye with heavy lashes, CAUTION reversed out across the pupil — The key visual

Close-up of a closed eye with long lashes, CAUTION stenciled across the shimmering lid — CAUTION on the lid · Photography: Hugo & Marie

Wide banner: a woman’s green eyes in a band of warm light, CAUTION EXTREME LASH MASCARA and HOURGLASS in white — Campaign layouts with Hugo & Marie, January 20186 images, swipe →

Poster: a black and white eye shape with a slit pupil, HOURGLASS above and #CAUTIONMASCARA below — Campaign layouts with Hugo & Marie, January 20186 images, swipe →

A woman’s face in black and white behind a cracked mirror, light falling across her eye and lashes — Watch What Happens, campaign still · Photography: David Hughes

Campaign credits

Shot in November 2017 at Outpost Studios in Brooklyn and released in June 2018. Director: Mario Hugo. Art direction and design: Mario Hugo, Tomas Markevicius. Director of photography: Jack Shanahan. Photography: David Hughes. Model: Victoria Anderson at Wilhelmina. Makeup: Kanako Takase. Set design: Jill Nichols. Still retouching: Venice Post. Editing and animation: Tomas Markevicius. Creative production and post: Hugo & Marie.

Static, set in motion

Part IISocial

Watch what happens

In which the feed turns into a run of warnings.

In the teaser week the plan called for short Instagram pieces cut from the campaign assets under Watch what happens; from the build week the line turned to Proceed with caution, with the hashtag #CAUTIONEYE. The feed built up through warnings before the reveal: an empty road, a matchbox of mascaras, CAUTION type cut into strips and painted in mascara strokes.

Watch what happens: the teaser on Instagram, cut from the campaign film · Film: Hugo & Marie

Instagram post: WATCH WHAT HAPPENS over an empty desert road

Instagram post: CAUTION mascaras packed like matches in a black matchbox, one wand lit

Instagram post: gold CAUTION mascaras among cut strips of CAUTION type

Instagram post: CAUTION written in mascara strokes with gold components on white — The launch on Instagram

Open your eyes: CAUTION on the lid, on Instagram

Instagram post: the gold CAUTION mascara standing open beside its wand on black

Instagram post: two CAUTION mascaras lying in a heap of gold chain

Instagram post: three gold CAUTION mascaras and a wand rising from liquid gold — The gold CAUTION mascara on Instagram

CAUTION glitches across an iris, on Instagram

Part IIIThe launch

Out into the street

In which the warning goes public.

Outdoors came in two waves: in the teaser week a wild posting that repurposed caution symbols and signage, crossed with CAUTION tape, and at launch, posters around the stores. The homepage teased with a sign up, the invitation set the date in pixel type, 07/22/2018, and the same lines went on a tote. Around it: windows, a gold card and a bank of screens.

Two strips of torn tape, one black with white type and one gold with black type, each printed CAUTION with a triangular seal reading CAUTION, WATCH WHAT HAPPENS — CAUTION tape, black and gold, with the seal · Proposal, March 2018

Mockup: a shopfront at night, its two display windows criss-crossed from inside with black tape printed HOURGLASS and CAUTION in gold, the lit store behind the glass — Store windows · Proposal mockup

A drawer box wrapped in a glitched black and white closed eye with CAUTION across the lid, the gold CAUTION mascara inside — The box

Mockup: the CAUTION poster grid along a pale brick wall: eyes in light, the gold mascara, the eye symbol, art stills, CAUTION and HOURGLASS — The poster grid on a wall · Mockup by Hugo & Marie

The Hourglass homepage on a desktop screen, CAUTION in broken white type over a glitched image with a Learn more button, the full page beside it — The homepage takeover, live for the launch

Mockup: a cluster of screens on a dark wall showing the CAUTION eye, CAUTION on a closed lid, the mascara on broken glass, the seal, the invitation and WATCH WHAT HAPPENS, reflected in a glossy floor — Screens · Proposal mockup

Part IVCruelty free

Eye to eye

In which a human eye meets a horse’s.

For Hourglass Cruelty Free Beauty, a model’s eye set against a horse’s. The packaging reads Compassionate, Committed, Beautiful, and the H gets a rabbit inside it, a sign that the brand is vegan and cruelty free.

A model’s blue eye beside a white horse’s eye, signed HOURGLASS CRUELTY FREE BEAUTY — Hourglass Cruelty Free Beauty

Portrait: a woman’s brown eye pressed against a chestnut horse’s eye

Portrait: a woman with a fringe and black eyeliner against a white horse’s eye

Portrait: a woman’s blue eye against a white horse’s eye

Portrait: a woman with red lips against a dark horse’s eye — The portraits

Gold Ambient palette box with a black H, a rabbit in its lower half and CRUELTY FREE beneath

Two gold boxes: the H with the rabbit on the front, Compassionate, Committed, Beautiful on the back — Working files, February 2018: the H with a rabbit, first set on gold boxes

The mark in motion: the rabbit looks up inside the H

Two boxes: the horse and human eyes on the front, a gold H with a rabbit and the words Compassionate, Committed, Beautiful on the back — Packaging

A rose gold compact with a black H cut with a rabbit silhouette, beside the open palette — The H, with a rabbit

Next project2021

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