Lindsay Boyle
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Our Turn Cosmetics

A concept lipstick brand for people who were alive in the early 2000s but too young to take part, with product pages that write out every shade's color so no one has to rely on the swatch.

Concept brand Self-directed in collaboration with Claude AI 2026
Poster for Our Turn Cosmetics, a concept lipstick brand. The headline reads: Made for the people who weren't quite old enough to take part, someone who was alive in the early 2000s and watched it from the outside, built on a study of 150 shade names across 12 brands. A color palette strip runs across the top. Section one explains the idea, that nostalgia is usually sold to the people who were there, so this brand is for those who only watched. Section two reports the shade-name study: 127 of 150 names point somewhere other than the color, 7 of 12 brands write a color description, and 5 leave it to the swatch. Section three shows the fix, a product-page sentence in a fixed order (depth, undertone, family, finish, then a phrase); for example, Curfew reads a deep cool berry with a cream finish, close to the color of red wine in a glass. Section four shows how a shopper picks a shade, by browsing or by describing the depth, undertone, and finish they want. Section five lists the 10-shade range with written descriptions, among them Older Sister, Butterfly Clip, Curfew, Screen Name, and Sign Off. A closing panel lists the site's accessibility commitments, including WCAG AAA contrast, alt text, and keyboard navigation, under the line: accessible product pages serve every shopper.
This is a tall, detailed poster. Select it to open a full-size view you can scroll and read closely.

Situation

Nostalgia sells to the people who were there. A revival counts on you taking part the first time, so it speaks to the rememberers. I was alive in the early 2000s but too young to take part. Across the nostalgic launches I've followed, I don't remember one speaking to someone who only watched. A brand for people who weren't there can't lean on a memory they are assumed to have, so I decided its product pages would not lean on anything you have to see, either.

Task

Design a concept lipstick brand for that audience, and give it a product page that never asks a shopper to rely on a memory or on seeing the color: the color written out, in words, on every shade.

Action

I built Our Turn around people who watched the early 2000s from the outside. It has a color palette, a 10-shade range, and names drawn from objects and moments of that time: Older Sister, Butterfly Clip, Curfew, Screen Name, Sign Off, and others. It grew out of my Lipstick Shade Names Analysis, which found that most shade names point somewhere other than the color, and that pages often leave the color to the swatch.

So, the product page writes the color down. Every shade gets one sentence in a fixed order, depth, then undertone, then family, then finish, then a phrase specific to the shade, so Curfew reads "a deep cool berry with a cream finish, close to the color of red wine in a glass." The swatch stays, but it is decorative; the color always appears in text, too. A shopper can browse the range or find a shade by describing it, how deep, warm or cool, and which finish. All of it is built to accessibility standards: every text pairing clears WCAG AAA contrast, photos have alt text naming the shade and finish, and nothing on the site asks you to judge a color on screen.

Result

Our Turn closes two gaps at once. A shopper who wasn't there in the early 2000s doesn't need a memory to belong, and a shopper who can't rely on the swatch, whether from a visual impairment, screen settings, or lighting, can still tell what color they are buying, because it is written down. It is the design answer to the Shade Names Analysis: the study found the color often isn't in words, so this brand always puts it there.

It doesn't assume you were there in the early 2000s, and it doesn't assume you can see the swatch. Back to all work →