June 30, 2014

You may have seen an interesting story in the news lately about how beauty is perceived differently around the world. Esther Honig, a blogger from Kansas City, set out on an experiment to assess the way beauty is influenced by personal as well as cultural ideas.

Honig took a picture of herself with hair pulled back, wearing no makeup and sent it to graphic designers in more than 25 countries with the simple instructions, “Make me beautiful.” The mix of professional and amateur designers sent back images enhanced using PhotoShop, each of which completely unique and telling of the designers’ individual cultures.

Among the designers’ geographic locations were Sri Lanka, Bulgaria, Morocco, Chile, the U.K., Kenya, and the U.S. While some designers’ products certainly displayed less skill than others, the experiment as a whole did a wonderful job of portraying the idea that beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder. You can find a description of the event on Honig’s blog, but BuzzFeed has a particularly intriguing visual setup.

Granted, we can’t say that each image is indicative of an entire country’s perception of beauty but they certainly make you take a step back and think. From the Argentinian designer’s resculpting of Esther’s eyebrows to the Moroccan designer’s addition of a hijab, these images are certainly taking the world by storm.

Posted In: Industry News