Brand Evaluation

Mac's identity is all about self-expression, individuality and creativity through makeup and self-presentation. It is all about being exactly who you want to be and not hiding behind stereotypes or what people expect you to be like. Mac is also all about being confident and free within yourself and your makeup skills. Mac was originally launched because of the limited colours at the time and the co-founders wanted to create products that makeup artists could use to create vibrant and colourful looks for photography. All the celebrities they use are very creative and are looked up to because of their confidence to start new movements and create their own identity. 

The Mac logo is very distinctive and recognisable. It is very simplistic, with very clean and sharp edges, making it look very professional. The use of only black and white also gives a professional and up market look because it doesn't look fussy or tacky in any way. The logo doesn't include any images of makeup or any other figures, but it instead just includes the company name. It has a very distinctive font used that is used every time the logo is used for consistency, making it instantly recognisable. There are two dots between the letters to show that the letters are initials for Makeup Art Cosmetics. It could be argued that the two dots look like eyes, which could be interpreted as beauty being in the eye of the beholder.

The products that Mac create and bring out are because of the demand from professional makeup artists, which are Mac's ultimate target audience; however they now also cater for the general public too. The majority of their consumers are female and they are generally either women who have a family and have launched their careers or college students in their teens. The consumers are also usually confident, creative and savvy and they like to spend money on themselves. Mac is a high end brand, but it is not at a very high price point, such as Chanel or Tom Ford etc. so it is more attainable by the general public, even if it is a treat. Mac uses demographic information which informs them that their more concentrated target audience is women between the ages of 18 - 49.

I like how I wasn’t restricted by my chosen brand to the kind of makeup looks I could create because MAC is such a diverse brand. For both my catwalk looks I chose designers that MAC had already created a look for because I wanted to make sure MAC would have done the makeup for my chosen designers. However I didn’t want to just adapt Mac’s makeup looks, I wanted to completely change them to what I would have done with the inspiration from the designers’ collections. I took most of my inspiration from the designers and the 2016 Spring/Summer trends; however I showcased Mac’s more natural and youthful side in Jonathan Saunders’ look and the more grungy, dramatic side in Gareth Pugh’s look.

I researched previous Mac collection adverts so that I could make mine as appropriate for Mac as possible. I found that they used very similar looking models throughout their adverts; they were very slim, perfect skin, youthful, with doll-like features, including plump lips, big eyes and petite noses. I also did research into the kind of makeup they used to find they typically had very dewy skin, glossy lips, heavy contouring and natural eye brows, with different eye makeup in each. I am happy that I gave my models makeup looks that followed what Mac tended to do and then I incorporated different 2016 Spring/Summer trends and my own inspiration to create my own looks. I am so happy with both my models for the adverts because they are beautiful, youthful girls, with doll-like features. I did both my adverts in a studio because I found that Mac always had very fake, plastic looking backgrounds. I included bright coloured inflatables in my Wash & Dry adverts to reflect the fantasy world Mac create for their collection adverts and then a plain black background for my Mineralize Skinfinish advert as many of Mac’s adverts have clean, block colours for the background to put all the focus on the makeup looks. Mac edits their adverts to make their models look flawless and sometimes even plastic looking, as if they are dolls. I made sure I developed my editing skills to make my models look as perfect as their, including frequency retouching and even liquefying to make the model look slimmer. I included Mac's logo into my adverts and the name of the collection to keep the text minimal and clean looking. 

I wanted to focus on portraying Mac’s identity of being very creative and self-expressive in my editorial images. I therefore chose to portray the message of never letting others restrain you from looking and being who you want to be. I did this by using tribal-inspired makeup and contrasting images to represent how the first model feels she is being engulfed by society and then the next image representing how the model is breaking free. In the second image I really wanted to represent Mac’s strength and confidence to look exactly how you want to look and I think my model portrayed this well with her powerful stance and bold makeup. I still used models I felt were appropriate for Mac, so they were both youthful and doll-like looking. I didn’t edit these images as much as the adverts because I wanted the models to look more realistic and relatable.