The Face of a Global Artist
One of the benefits of working with a wide variety of clients is the knowledge you acquire by immersing yourself in the subject matter of a project. I admit, before I worked on this this combination of coffee table book and style guide, I knew nothing about makeup artistry. But now if I ever need to shape my own eyebrows I’ll know how to properly align the arch with the outside edge of my iris.
When Paul Pereira asked me to help him design his makeup artistry guide I didn’t hesitate because it was an opportunity to learn something new as well as dust off my long-dormant book design skills. Paul has been in the beauty industry for over two decades and is a Master Global Stylist, makeup artist and owner of Lazuli Salon in Providence, Rhode Island.
Paul believes education is the key to success. He attends advanced technical training seminars on a regular basis to keep up with current trends and techniques and his well-known for his skill in cutting and styling naturally curly hair. Paul had worked with another designer for the first iteration of his makeup artistry style guide but wasn’t pleased with the final product. He wanted something that he could proudly display in the waiting room of his salon as well as distribute during his workshops for the Global Artist Network.
The design
The first order of business was a trip to my local library to peruse a large stack of makeup artistry books so I could get a sense of their content and style. I knew photography was going to play a major role in making Paul’s book visually dynamic as well as instructive.
The step-by-step imagery, such as facial contouring and mascara work, was created during a one-day photo shoot at Paul’s salon. We supplemented those with fashion images that Paul had from a previous photo shoot. I created some custom illustrations for a comparison graphic of face shapes, eye shapes, and nose contouring. I sourced high-quality stock photography for or any images that didn’t directly reference Paul’s work or unique style.
We picked up all the content from Paul’s first book and he wrote additional copy for sections of the book that were a little light on content. Thankfully, Paul is as skillful at writing as he is makeup so we didn’t need to hire a copywriter.
I based the book’s dimensions on Vogue magazine, thinking this would be a familiar format to anyone sitting in an upscale salon. I kept the body text clean and simple with a geometric sans-serif font (Pluto) and complimented it with elegant headlines set in Regal Display Pro.
The result
The end result was an 85-page coffee table book that highlights Paul’s unique makeup artistry and fashion sense, starting from basic facial preparation to finishing touches such as glitter-infused eye shadow and lip glosses.
Both of us enjoyed the experience of putting this book together. Paul has a style guide that he can feel proud to distribute and I’m now able to carry on an educated conversation about eye liner with my adult daughter.