Erno Laszlo is a 97-year-old skincare brand with a genuinely extraordinary legacy: its founder, Dr. Erno Laszlo, was a pioneer in psychocosmetology — the study of the connection between skin health and mental health. Decades before the wellness industry made that connection mainstream, he was treating clients holistically, understanding that stress, emotion, and skin were biologically linked. The brand had that story. It wasn't telling it.Erno Laszlo — Brand Transformation, Global Creative Direction
The approachThe Skin & Mind positioning brought Dr. Laszlo's founding philosophy back to the center of the brand, grounded in a peer-reviewed white paper developed with an advisory board of eight dermatologists and researchers from institutions including NYU, Penn, and UCSF. This wasn't a marketing claim — it was a scientific platform. Every creative decision that followed had to live up to it.
Brand photography was redesigned around the science: bright, open lighting with clear shadows to communicate the precision behind each formula, macro ingredient imagery that evoked looking through a microscope, product textures shot with a tactile quality that made the formulas feel both clinical and sensorial. The visual language had to feel intelligent and luxurious at the same time.
Packaging was redesigned in partnership with Operations, NPD, and Marketing with sustainability as a structural commitment. Marble caps were reformulated to incorporate post-consumer waste and recycled plastics. Premium collections including Phormula 3-10 and VTM Micro Essence moved to glass, positioning sustainability not as a footnote but as a signal of quality. Copywriting, brand guidelines, and global asset libraries were developed to maintain consistency across North America, China, and Europe.
What was delivered:
• Brand positioning and Skin & Mind platform
• Global photography direction
• Packaging redesign (sustainability-led)
• Copywriting and brand voice guidelines
• Global asset libraries
• Retail experience design across Nordstrom, Holt Renfrew, SpaceNK, Belk, and international partners
• Flagship concept store in Shenzhen
The result:
A 97-year-old brand with a coherent, defensible point of view and the creative infrastructure to express it consistently across every market and channel.