TRESEMMÉ

NEW PRODUCTS UNIFIED BY A COLOR SYSTEM

CLIENT – Alberto Culver
PROJECT – TRESemmé redesign launch campaign
AGENCY – Mithun (now McCann)
PHOTOGRAPHERY – Sarah Silver
ROLE – Art director • Designer

CHALLENGE
TRESemmé restructured its product line around how women thought about their hair. Instead of shopping by product, they shop by need: Volume, Moisture, Curl, Smooth, Control/Hold. Each collection had new packaging with color coding.

This was a savvy system, but customers who had reached for the same bottles for years now had to relearn their products. So the advertising had to sell the aspirational promise of salon hair at drugstore prices, and teach the new color-coded product lines.

SOLUTION
I designed the print system to communicate the product taxonomy three ways at once:

The photography demonstrated the need state. Striking images of volume, curls, and smooth hair were proof of the products’ efficacy. Each one had to demonstrate a different hair behavior with consistent lighting and styling to unify the series. Working with innovative beauty photographer was also a key to the campaign’s success; we photographed the models in high-contrast black and white, then applied the color overlays in post.

The color indexed it. Every element of the layout reinforced each need state's color. The monochrome tint across the photography, the diagonal ribbon element from the packaging, and the packaging callouts. A customer who saw the green page for curls arrived at the store looking for green.

The tabs mapped the range. The row of color tabs runs along the bottom edge showed all eight need states, so every ad taught the whole system while selling one part of it.

OUTCOME
The campaign ran nationally in print and through New York Fashion Week as Times Square billboards, video projections, and taxi toppers.