After 18 years at The Estée Lauder Companies successfully leading Package Design and Development for Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, Angela Piner decided to create her own company, AVP Creative, to collaborate with start-up and Indie brands. Her focus was branding through package design and development, from ideation to market.

The timing couldn’t have been better.

Piner was tapped by renowned makeup artist Gucci Westman to create custom packaging for her namesake brand. The collaboration began swiftly in early 2017 with the founders of Westman Atelier—Gucci Westman and her husband David Neville, the co-founder of Rag & Bone.

The creative partnership was easy; the founders had a clear vision of the brand aesthetic. With inspiration from their beautiful surroundings on the Upper West Side, the ideation started.

“The challenge,” according to Piner, “was interpreting this aesthetic into package design, merging the function needed for the innovative formulations with luxury and manufacturability.”

The line-up for the initial launch consists of five performance-driven, easy-to-use products formulated without silicones with the focus on stick cream formulas. The products are: Vital Skin Foundation Stick; Baby Cheeks Blush Stick; Lit Up Highlight Stick; Face Trace Contour Stick; Super Loaded Tinted Highlight; and Beauty Butter Powder Bronzer.

In addition to the luxurious formulations, Piner knows, “The packaging is critical to branding; the consumer experiences the package every time she uses her product.”

Luxury Is ‘All in the Details’

Piner believes luxury is “all in the details.” These details do not go unnoticed throughout the line; from the deboss logo on the inside of the magnetic closure, to the matte finishes and mixed metals used to tie the line together, to the distinctive merchandising unit.

Piner describes the thought process behind her drive to create the unexpected: “I always want to do something that has not been seen in the market.” For instance, the custom metal clad stick was not going to be the standard 50/50 opening. The modern 80/20 structure was different and allowed the logo to be punched in a deep draw metal without interruption. “The stick structure came about as I did not want a standard structure that is so often seen in the market for foundation sticks,” explains Piner. “I changed the proportion, and the reveal detail to ensure that the cap and base would not look common when closed; it was a more challenging alternative to the ‘wedding band’ seen in most stick packages.” These chic stick packages are monochromatic when the cap is closed; once the cap is removed, it highlights the use of mixed metals for the a-shell, which adds light-reflecting contrast to the matte finishes.

Westman Atelier, AVP Creative’s first venture launching product to market without all the benefits of a large corporation was “exciting and worth the challenge,” Piner says, adding, “I chose carefully who to work with, from the suppliers to hiring the best QA team, which are critical decisions for any luxury good.”

The brand officially launched in July 2018 with iconic retail partner Barneys New York. It got off to a strong start well exceeding sales projections and quickly becoming one of the top vendors for the store.

AVP Creative is busy creating the next wave of products for Westman Atelier along with other projects in the works.

Gucci Westman knows she made the right choice in collaborating with Piner. She says: “Angela’s work ethic, efficiency, creativity is a force to be reckoned with. During the ideation of Westman Atelier, our brainstorming meetings were incredibly inspiring and energizing. I am absolutely certain that we would never have been able to achieve the level of quality, craftsmanship and elegance, had we not met Angela. She is 100% critical to our brand. We also have a fun time whilst achieving great results! She continues to amaze us all!”