Cosmetics are often talked about as a corrective tool. The language around beauty – both in media and advertising – is focused largely on using products or treatments to look somehow ‘better’: less tired, more radiant, more youthful or more ‘attractive’. Campaigns and editorials are becoming more diverse but on the whole, they still project a fairly narrow view of what it means to be beautiful. And when it comes to visual communication, beauty is an industry prone to cliches: monochrome palettes with pink and pastel accents or photographs of white models with glowing skin and Hollywood smiles.

But Dazed Beauty – a new platform from Dazed Media – is hoping to change this. Through creative collaborations with artists and influencers, partnerships with brands and a website, magazine and social channels, Dazed Media says the platform hopes to “pave the way for the future of beauty publishing by fundamentally rethinking what beauty content looks like and how it speaks to and converses with the next generation”.

Kinney said the platform reflects how younger generations are experimenting with beauty in the same way that people have traditionally experimented with fashion – using cosmetics and procedures as a tool for self-expression.

Ffrench said the platform will explore “new territories with a distinctly digital angle” – “Our aim is to really redefine beauty itself,” she said.

The platform’s visual identity is as unconventional as its content. Designed by Creative Consultant Ben Freeman in collaboration with Ffrench and Kinney, it is inspired by prog rock, sci-fi and art nouveau and looks nothing like your average beauty brand. Which is exactly what Freeman, Kinney and Ffrench were hoping for.