There are few branding assignments where the word smooth carries quite this much pressure.
For its new identity for European Wax Center, Yard NYC has built an entire brand platform around the idea with “Smooth, Done Right”—a confident, slightly cheeky declaration from a company that has performed more than 100 million waxes. At this point, presumably, they know smooth.
The transformation spans strategy, identity, campaigns, packaging, signage, and the interiors of more than 1,000 centers. But for Type Tuesday purposes, the most interesting part is how the typography helps bring the idea to life.
The new system pairs DGM Sprinter, a clean Humanist sans serif, with Resona Italic, an expressive serif that brings considerably more movement to the proceedings. Sprinter provides structure and efficiency, while Resona adds softness, fluidity, and a touch of imperfection. One says expertise; the other says skin.
Yes, wax-inspired typography could have gone terribly wrong. Here, it doesn’t.
The contrast between the two typefaces gives the identity much of its personality: clean and fluid, controlled and expressive. The new wordmark has also been liberated from its old brand block, allowing it to live more freely across color, photography, and a wider range of applications.
An expanded color palette adds further flexibility, while the broader visual system extends across photography, packaging, signage, out-of-home advertising, digital campaigns, and the company’s physical locations. Yard NYC also developed guidelines for refreshing more than 1,000 centers, from exterior signage and reception areas to waxing suites and product displays.
Beauty branding has spent years cycling through clinical minimalism, wellness pastels, and varying degrees of aspirational beige. European Wax Center’s new identity takes a bolder, more expressive route, using typography to balance expertise with personality.
Smooth, it turns out, is more interesting when it isn’t completely smooth.
