REF Hair

At REF, I worked as an in-house Art Director and Graphic Designer, overseeing a broad scope of creative responsibilities. I collaborated with external studios to lead a comprehensive rebrand of our haircare line. My role involved ongoing updates to product designs, website visuals, printed materials, and digital assets, ensuring cohesive brand expression across all touchpoints.

Art Direction | Branding | Visual identity | Graphic design | Final Arts | Packaging design | Photoshoots | Retouch

  • Our aim for REF was to establish a unique position in the market by drawing on its Swedish heritage of simplicity, quality, natural ingredients, and sustainability. These core values became the cornerstone of the brand’s refreshed identity. Another key focus was transparency, ensuring customers had clear insight into the ingredients used — a commitment reflected throughout the brand's design and communication.

  • To achieve this, I worked in-house as Art Director and Graphic Designer, collaborating closely with a design agency to develop a cohesive brand identity. The result was a clean, modern design system featuring a refined wordmark, sleek typography, and a natural, earthy color palette. The color system played a key role in organizing the product range, ensuring easy navigation across categories and individual products. This visual approach was consistently applied to REF's packaging, website, and marketing collateral.

  • The rebrand was met with positive reception from both professional hair studios and end consumers. The updated brand successfully strengthened REF’s presence in key markets like Scandinavia and the US, laying the groundwork for further global expansion.

Product page of a website displayed on a laptop screen showcasing a lightweight volume conditioner with botanical extracts, featuring a bottle labeled 'REF Stockholm Sweden' and price of 129 SEK.
A sunflower, a bowl of blueberries, flax seeds, and peppercorns arranged on a white and gray background with a small container of blue ink or dye.
A woman with long, wavy, reddish-brown hair wearing a white blazer over a black top, standing against a plain light pink background.
A laptop displaying a website for a haircare brand called REF, with bottles of hair products on the screen against a minimalist background.
A close-up of four different size translucent gel-like objects with bubbles inside, placed on a background split diagonally between blue and off-white colors.
A white bottle of REF Ultimate Repair Conditioner with black cap, placed on a textured gray surface with gray paper underneath.
A side profile of a young man with dark, slicked-back hair, wearing a white collared shirt, looking to the left against a plain gray background.
A sunflower in a clear glass bowl, three almonds, a pile of black quinoa seeds, and a small glass dish of water are arranged on a marble and gray surface.
Two black and white spray bottles labeled 'REF' for dry shampoo on a round concrete platform with pink, brown, blue, and white background panels.
A tote bag hanging on a stone staircase. The tote bag has text that reads 'Stockholm Sweden REF Hello beautiful' and additional text about empowerment, awareness, and sustainability of cotton.
A beige tote bag resting on stone steps with sunlight and shadows.