Medik8 Crystal Retinal
Crystal Retinal
Medik8, a British, science-led skincare brand, leads its product development with research, not trends. Working with the team, we developed a series of visuals to demonstrate how their professional-grade, “clean” formulas work, in a way that speaks to their audience. Informative and visually accurate, yet unwaveringly beautiful.
As a scientist-founded skincare brand, Medik8 formulates its products through extensive clinical and consumer research, supported by an in-house R&D team.
With product launches reliant on communicating highly complex formulations, we designed a series of product launch campaign visuals that were both accurate and captivating – rooted in its medical and clinical heritage, yet aligned with contemporary skincare advertising.
The main challenge was communicating complex scientific concepts without over-explaining or talking down to the audience, while also avoiding excessive technical detail. To do this, we first had to properly understand the science ourselves, speaking with Medik8’s product development team to identify the essential information to highlight.
Moving away from Medik8’s previous, more prescriptive communication style, our approach focused on visualising the scientific and technical aspects of the products in a way that felt clear, confident, and accessible, with visual consistency across all campaigns
Balancing clinical authority with aspirational language, our approach highlights the defining qualities of Crystal Retinal.
Fast, clinically proven wrinkle reduction; powerful yet gentle performance; an internationally patented stability system with time‑release delivery; crystal‑encapsulated retinal for precision; and a ladder of six progressive strengths.
Working within the brand’s desaturated deep navy key colour, we developed crystal structures that reflect the product story, using reflections and refractions to create dramatic lighting, add scientific cues, and communicate ‘crystals’ in a refined, clinical, premium way.
Development
The core crystal form was inspired by Medik8’s own scientific documentation, which depicted the retinal molecule encapsulated in a cyclodextrin crystal that penetrates the skin, dissolves, and then releases retinal. This idea became the backbone of the visual language: crystal structures expressed both scientific complexity and product benefit.
Designing the visual foundation for future projects: Liquid Peptides MP Launch
Our partnership with Medik8 began with an initial development project to launch Liquid Peptides Advanced MP, where Bolder crafted key visuals to set a benchmark for future campaigns.
We established a CGI approach for the brand built on highly crafted detail and subtle realism, with products placed in clean, graphic spaces and hyper‑real liquids, bubbles, and reflections as the hero elements. We used light to reveal depth, transparency, and texture, creating a visual foundation that then carried into Crystal Retinal and guided how we treated light, liquid behaviour, transparency, and surface detail across the range.
Credits
- Client
- Medik8
- Production
- Bolder
- CGI Artists
- Gareth Bowen, Nacho Miro, Bailey Jones
- Producer
- Sophia Lengui
- Creative Director
- David Farquharson
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