Katya pavlenko

Art Direction at the Intersection of Beauty, Fashion & Future Thinking

Art director and creative technologist. I work where good ideas meet new formats.

I’ve spent 5 years making campaigns, products and worlds that earn attention—without relying on gimmicks. Beauty, fashion, tech, and beyond.

My approach is simple: lead with concept, execute without ego, and leave the audience with something that sticks.

Metaverse beauty week

Brief: Make rival beauty brands willingly share the same runway in the metaverse.

We turned competition into collaboration by building a digital space bigger than any one brand. I led the concept and world-building across platforms like Roblox, Decentraland and Spatial, designing a virtual festival where Lush, Neutrogena, and Lottie London could all show up without losing their edge.

  • Flannels Beauty

    A branded beauty bar with integrated gamification features that held live events from beauty gurus

  • VALDE BEAUTY

    A gamified scene inspired by the iconic Valde lipstick where users could pose for virtual selfies and claim a wearable outfit in Decentraland

  • LUSH

    A giant LUSH island inspired by their bath-bomb collection where users could claim a wearable skin for their Spatial Avatar and vibe to a curated playlist

  • NEUTROGENA

    A series of mini-games narrated by Kerry Washington’s avatar: interact with the main pillars of healthy skin to learn more about Neutrogena’s skincare range and get wearable rewards

  • LOTTIE LONDON

    In Roblox, users could complete a treasure hunt to claim real-life rewards

  • LUSH

    In Decentraland, we prompted users to step into LUSH bath bombs and get transported to 3 different party spaces that visualised the mood and feel of each bath bomb

  • FLANNELS BEAUTY

    Interacting with Flannels Beauty Bar granted users wearable makeup looks for their avatars inspired by the curated summer makeup looks

Shiseido: #alivewithbeauty

For Shiseido’s 150th anniversary, I led the creative on an AI-powered loyalty campaign that turned a celebration into a collectible ecosystem.

The core idea: ditch the party, give people something they’d actually want to keep. We launched 150 limited-edition NFTs, each co-designed with AI and five pioneering women in beauty and tech.

Every piece was generated through custom prompt engineering—fed by brand archetypes, interviews, and strategic insights—then wrapped in 360° immersive content.

I used DALL·E 2 while it was still in beta, and taught it to speak Shiseido’s language.

The real win? We made loyalty look like art—and gave AI a creative soul instead of just a gimmick.

checked-out gpt

Most AI tools are too helpful. So I made one that isn’t.

Checked-Out GPT is a chatbot trained to drag, ignore, and occasionally insult users who can’t think for themselves. She doesn’t write your CV—she roasts your lack of one.

Prompt-engineered to reject passive behaviour and weaponise sass, she was built as a counter to the growing cult of AI co-dependence.

Infinite fashion & dress x

A digital fashion drop before digital fashion drops were a thing. Born at the start of the metaverse fashion boom, this project partnered with i-D and DressX to spotlight emerging creators and reimagine self-expression for the virtual age.

Think glowing horns, liquid metal textures, and gowns that defy physics. I worked with 3D artists to bring surreal looks to life—part avatar styling, part world-building, all attitude. No physical runway, no stitching, no limits.

Brief: Make fashion feel untouchable, impossible, and more real than reality.
I turned imagination into inventory.

Clarins virtual world

Global skincare giant. Gen 9 Double Serum. Unreal Engine 5.

For Clarins' worldwide launch, I helped turn a product drop into a playable fantasy. We built a platform-agnostic, shoppable environment that blurred the line between luxury skincare and immersive storytelling—minus the traditional UX.

It worked anywhere, looked unreal (literally), and let users explore a high-fidelity world where clicking to buy felt more like questing for a skin glow-up.

Brief: Bring prestige beauty into digital world and introduce it to younger audience, as well as make it accessible and fun enough to retain and surprise the usual Clarins consumer.

The brief: bring an energy drink brand to life with an Amazon reforestation mission at its core.

Our answer: make the rainforest grow back, right in the middle of a city.

I art-directed two AR experiences: one mural-based in Ghent and one product-triggered via packaging. Both used lush animated 2D/3D layers to let users “unlock” the forest—reminding them that their can of Yula wasn’t just packaging, it was participation.

We used tech not just as a gimmick, but as a narrative tool—letting the environment reclaim space in places it normally couldn’t.

Yula Energy

Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Merry & Bright

Christmas brief. Nail brand. No appetite for a full try-on experience.

So instead of building a filter that mimicked polish, we made one that mimicked the vibe—using hand tracking to scatter glitters and sparkles across the shot.

It was a light-touch creative solution that nodded to the product without pretending to be something it wasn’t.

Beauty all the way…

I turn intangible ideas into fleeting, wearable stories.

It’s not about decorating or enhancing—it’s about revealing something underneath. Using tech that’s usually built to polish and fake, I build filters that confront, expose, and narrate.

There’s always a script behind the surface. Whether it’s a full campaign or a single AR frame, I approach it the same way: start with the meaning. Build from there.