Andy Warhol’s famed love of television revisited with skincare packaging

Manchester creative agency Love has designed the concept, visual identity and packaging for a new collaboration between skincare brand SK-II and The Andy Warhol Foundation – and it’s all about TV. Andy Warhol's iconic television technicolour test patterns are utilised across the packaging and wider campaign.

According to a release from Love, Warhol himself was somewhat of a skincare addict, owning an impressive assortment of ointments and lotions (who knew?). His “unique point of view on beauty” was mirrored in the release from SK-II and a central theme, also used as a tagline within the collection, is the artist’s belief: “I’ve never met a person I couldn’t call a beauty.”

Design-wise, Love chose to tap into Warhol’s fascination with the relationship between art and mass media broadcasting for the collaboration. The limited-edition includes two gift sets, one taking the shape of a 1990s VHS tape and another designed to look like a Warhol-era analogue TV, paying homage to the artist at the vanguard of developments in television, with his own MTV cable shows.

While Warhol, Basquiat and other brand-art collaborations for products may be common in the commercial world these days, David Palmer, executive creative director at Love, says the agency took a slightly different approach: “From the outset we were keen to uncover an aspect of Andy Warhol, or his work, which was less well known. He produced so many iconic and immediately recognisable pieces, but we want to share a different side to him. Something that hadn’t been mined and explored. Working with the Andy Warhol Foundation, we were excited to discover a real connection between SK-II and Andy Warhol, through their shared fascination with skin care.”

The new packaging is part of a regular issuing of limited editions from SK-II of its Facial Treatment Essence. The limited-edition packs are available in three different colourways and feature a QR code to unlock further “broadcasts” from the brand.