Associate Creative Director: Parul Sharma, Art Director: Mary Hu, Design: Gabriela Colon, Animation: Sheryl Fuentes; Additional agency support: OBE (2023), Jack Morton and BMF (2024)
Below Left: Collectible NFT from SEPHORiA 2023; Right: SEPHORiA 2024 logo
Each year, SEPHORiA had a new theme. In 2023, our "House of Beauty" in New York was inspired by the city itself. In 2024, the event moved to Atlanta and our theme was "funhouse". Although we weren't budgeted for new illustrations each year to support the event—under my supervision, our in-house team created supplemental art and incorporated trending design elements to keep things fresh. In 2023, NFTs and Virtual Events were a core design ask. In 2024, digital colors were trending IRL so we chose a prismatic look and feel for our art. We also played on funhouse elements like jugglers' stacks, carousels and tents.
Below: 2023 key visual playing on the iconic New York skyline; incorporating the subway into our teaser post.
Below: Moodboard in 2024 for a modern take on a funhouse // sketches by designer Gabriela Colon // Final 2024 key visual and supplemental assets, inspired by jugglers, funhouse tents and distorted mirrors in trending prismatic digital tones
Each year, SEPHORiA kicked off in the United States and the US guidelines became the launchpad for global SEPHORiA events. Guidelines developed in-house also supported experiential agencies who were primarily responsible for building out the ticketing website, and onsite builds such as booths and photo opps.
Below: color system from the 2024 guidelines
Ticketing website for the 2024 event, designed by agency Jack Morton under SEPHORiA event guidelines and art direction
We promoted the event on our social channels, emails, on sephora.com and OOH, including on our Times Square billboard. Meme-ified posts and posts that capitalized on trends performed consistently well. We also used Stories and native platform features to engage with our audience.
Below Left: A CGI announcement made for the 2024 event in collaboration with artist Johana Kroft played on the trend of fantasy CGI videos performing well. We established the SEPHORA brand identity right away and then teased the funhouse theme through the visual of a carousel whose doors opened to hint at various activations at the physical/IRL event.
Below Right: Teasing the Atlanta location with peaches overflowing from a Sephora bag
Activation of the brand at the event venue
BELOW
Videos 1 to 3: Sizzle videos capturing the SEPHORiA experience: the swag and product samples, experiencing the event with your 5 senses and the diversity of beauty and people who make the experience come to life.
Videos 4 and 5: Virtual SEPHORiA from 2023. Mobile view: An avatar runs through the Lobby scanning the gamification locations spread across the environment; Desktop view: overview of the branded virtual experience