Good. Better. Best. Beckham.

The Tension
Four years after launch, Victoria Beckham Beauty had a problem it did not deserve. Its products were among the finest in clean beauty, yet the brand was still bought, and dismissed, on the strength of its founder's fame.

The Insight
Victoria was never considered the best, from her early days as a young dancer through to the Spice Girls. She had to work harder than anyone and get everything right, because one mistake would have proved her doubters right. That discipline never left her. Outsiders assume a celebrity has simply lent her name to a product; in truth, everything is made to her brief, from formulation to packaging, and nothing leaves until she is satisfied. We named it The Victoria Standard: the standard she has always held herself to, across beauty and fashion alike, and now the one the company holds itself to, distilled into a line customers could repeat.

The Decision.
Everything Victoria touches is luxury by nature: the finest materials and leathers in her fashion, the cleanest and best ingredients in her beauty. Yet the brand had been dressing itself in the borrowed codes of established luxury houses, and in doing so had lost what made it hers. Victoria had spent years keeping her imperfections out of view, along with how hard she had pushed to overcome them. We were the first to tell her that this was her superpower. It became the brand's personality, and she has leaned into it heavily ever since. Victoria took the role of the exacting creative director, lending authority to every claim, while the brand's voice took on her dry, self-aware wit: an insider who knows precisely how demanding she is, and is happy to let you in on it.

The Discipline.
A brand that promises a standard has to meet it everywhere. We went through every expression of Victoria Beckham Beauty, from typography, colour and layout to art direction, packaging and retail, until nothing was incidental. Every element had to be a deliberate expression of the Standard; nothing was left to chance.

The Work.
A new brand book, and full style guidelines, including graphic design, art direction and tone of voice; a modular retail environment for Bergdorf Goodman, Selfridges, La Samaritaine, Neiman Marcus and the brand's own Dover Street space; and packaging design including sampling sets popular enough to be sold in their own right. The line “Good Better Best Beckham” has since become a Beckham family motto.

The Effect.
Across the engagement, Victoria Beckham's revenue rose from £58.8 million in 2022 to £112.7 million in 2024, with beauty cited as a driver of growth. Today a Victoria Beckham Beauty Satin Kajal Liner sells every 30 seconds. (Company results, 2023 and 2024)

"Working with David and the team he brought in, felt like getting the varsity team of strategic creatives."

Katia Beauchamp, CEO, Victoria Beckham. [Read the full reference]

My Role.
I won the business and held the relationship from the first conversation. I led the engagement through SG Cartel from 2023 to 2025, setting the strategy and creative direction, with SG Cartel acting as the brand's creative department. We stepped back only once the Victoria Beckham Beauty team had built enough creative capability of its own, a team I helped shape, down to writing its job descriptions, and with the guidelines in place to maintain the work long after we had gone.

The SG Cartel team included Natalee Ranii-Dropcho, Alex Bones, Stuart Hall and Alex Molyneux, with K-Studio and Steven Klein; Work by Holiday, Sheridan & Co and Imprimerie du Marais; and integral collaboration from the Victoria Beckham Beauty team.