L'Oréal Profesionnel
A magazine that puts the spotlight on the artists behind the chair
L'Oréal Professionnel represents a wide network of hair and makeup artists across the Netherlands, but the industry's attention almost always lands on the clients in the chair, not the artists behind it. L'Oréal asked Eric Elenbaas agency to develop a concept that would flip that in a way to genuinely celebrate the artists themselves.
The idea
We built the concept around a simple physical fact: in terms of light, white is the presence of every color, while black is its absence. Without light, everything is black. We used that as the visual and conceptual engine for the entire magazine, working in black and white across photography and graphic design to strip away every distraction and put the spotlight, literally, on the artists.
The result: a bold but restrained concept, striking without shouting, and entirely at home with a beauty brand like L'Oréal Professionnel.
Bringing it to life
As Art Director and Designer, I shaped the magazine's identity around the deliberate tension between classic and modern. Pairing two contrasting typefaces that played off each other the same way black plays off white, and carrying that push-and-pull through the layout, photography direction, and graphic system of every page. The result is a design language sophisticated enough to hold its own next to the artists themselves.
Impact
The concept resonated well beyond a single issue: the magazine was translated into a coffee table book, followed shortly after by a second edition.
services
art direction
concept development
editorial design
graphic design
print
Client
L'Oréal Profesionnel
Creative Director
Gregory Barendregt
Art Director
Roos Bulder
Photographer
Ruben de Wilde
Agency
Eric Elenbaas Agency
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