There isn’t a smudge in sight in Yungbld’s new liquid sharp eyeliner branding

We love a type that can make you reassess your eyeliner game. So naturally, we’re very taken with Flordia-based design studio Yungbld’s latest work: crafting branding, packaging and product design for eyeliner brand Hijinx. Forgoing any lingering preconceptions that makeup branding has to be minimal to make good with a clean-lined cat eye, Yungbld has gone big on contrasting visual references. Blobby beehive-coloured renders work in tandem with soft, blown-out product shots and swooping type, finished off with a splattering of Busta Rhymes art direction – yes, Busta Rhymes.

If it all sounds a bit disparate, Yungbld can attest that there is method behind the moodboard mania; it all comes from Hijinx’s POV as a brand. The series of small batch eyeliners are inspired by and made for “artists and creatives who use makeup as a form of self-expression”, Yungbld explains in a release. With an aim to champion unrestrained fun and push beauty boundaries, it makes sense that Hijinx’s branding would do the same. Plus, rather than working to a brief from an external client, the eyeliner has actually been developed by Laura Miller, founder of Yungbld, allowing for further end-to-end control on the project and freedom when it comes to realising inspirations.

As for those wide-ranging influences underpinning the work, Laura states that the idea of “careless antics and unrestrained fun” brought the design team straight to the doorstep of the 90s. “We incorporated fish-eye photography which also reminded us of that time period in the 90s, when people were breaking boundaries and letting themselves be weird and unrestrained. We love the work of Spike Jones and Hype Williams. Think art direction in the Busta Ryhmes music video Gimme Some More and Dangerous. We implemented this fish-eye perspective in our shoot.”

The founder continues: “Contrast is a heavy focus in our work. One way we explored this is by choosing a minimal bold serif for the primary mark paired with a wide, loosely written script.” If the script wasn’t enough to make you think ultra fine eyeliner, the palette is also rooted in the product. The first batch of Hijinx features signature liners in black, white and yellow – the very same colours that serve as the foundation for Hijinx’s brand print material. As such, Yungbld has managed to create an identity that advertises the capabilities of Hijinx, before buyers crack open a single pot of eyeliner.