EnKō Beauty embraces digital surrealism and Japanese folklore with brand launch

Newly-launched make-up brand EnKō Beauty – spearheaded by make-up artist and beauty influencer Caylin McDonie – took inspiration from McDonie's own beauty designs to incorporate them into the brand's overall style. McDonie is well-known on social media for her experimental and avant-garde make-up looks, which are magically playful and inspired by high fashion.

The recent release of EnKō marks McDonie's exploration into beauty. The word EnKō refers to Japanese folklore, specifically denoting a water dragon and literally translates to beauty in coincidences – which is a nod to McDonie's experimental beauty application technique. Therefore, the brand's identity needed to mirror McDonie's own dreamy aesthetic.

The resulting assets produced by Hugmun Studio are a mix of absurdly futuristic designs that can be used across formats and superimposed onto models.

Hugmun Studio was also responsible for creating the brand's custom logotypes and typography and coming up with the Rabbit Hole font – which was conceived by Hugmun co-founder Tomasz Pawluk aka @Boafff. Other complimentary fonts include the Sometimes Times Italic by Boulevardlab, which provides a lighter contrast to Rabbit Hole and is offset by the serif font PLAIN from Optimo.

The result is an assortment of squiggly and soft visuals that move to immerse viewers into colourful new realities. Each letter has a curvaceous body, harking back to its folkloric origins and reminiscent of McDonie's freehand and artistic style. Playing with metallic, holographic, 3D and chrome effects in the brand's visual identity suggests its continual metamorphic shift while mimicking the multi-tones found in the brand's eye shadows.

Hugmun Studio was inspired by the work of Polish 3D artist @Vi.zuza, who creates fantastical natural realms across print and moving image and worked to embed these in the EnKō's identity.

The team also worked with McDonie to bring her vision and style to life, with animator Marek Degrski creating a couture-inspired mask; and printer Marceli bringing the packaging to life, embossing the intricate designs onto black letterpress on Carte using Parfum paper by Fedrigoni.