Beauty Marks - sun exposure

Beauty Marks

Navn
Alberte Mille Almsig
Uddannelsesgrad
Kandidat
Fagfelt
Design
Institut
Design og Visuel Interaktion
Program
Visuelt Design, Graphic Communication Design
År
2026

How can we become aware of the traces sunlight leaves through daily exposure? At a time when melanoma rates continue to rise globally, and Denmark remains among the countries with the highest incidence rates in the world, the campaign Beauty Marks approaches melanoma awareness as a question of perception by exploring how risk can be overlooked through familiarity. It proposes an alternative to traditional awareness campaigns through attention and and how awareness can exist within everyday life.

Developed through field research in Australia and Denmark, the project explores how awareness can emerge through noticing rather than alarm. Using sun exposure as part of the image-making processes, visual storytelling, and applications across public, digital, and cultural contexts, Beauty Marks transforms exposure into something people can see, experience, and reflect upon.

At the visual core of the project are cyanotype and anthotype processes, where sunlight itself becomes part of the creation of the image. Exposure is not only represented, but also actively produces the visual outcome. Anthotype, with its warm yellow tones, became the project’s primary material language, evoking sunlight, pigmentation, and caution.

Melanoma often begins as a small change in an existing mole. Denmark has one of the highest melanoma rates in the world.
Beauty Marks poster
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Beauty Marks - sun exposure
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Beauty Marks Concept
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Beauty Marks Concept
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The vision is not to replace existing health communication, but to create an additional layer of awareness that exists where exposure takes place for instance in parks, festivals, events, public spaces, beaches and everyday encounters. If awareness is a perceptual problem, it should not only exist within health campaigns. It should be embedded in everyday culture, appearing in the places, behaviours, and environments where sun exposure naturally occurs.

Beauty Marks demonstrates how design can function not only as a tool for communication, but as a tool for shaping attention. By turning invisible exposure into visible traces, it offers a new model for health awareness, one rooted in culture, perception, and everyday life.

Campaign Posters
Campaign Posters
Poster concept for Beauty Marks
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We made moles sound prettier. Maybe that’s the problem.
Anthotype printing process
Anthotype printing process

Det Kongelige Akademi understøtter FN’s verdensmål

Siden 2017 har Det Kongelige Akademi arbejdet med FN’s verdensmål. Det afspejler sig i forskning, undervisning og afgangsprojekter. Dette projekt har forholdt sig til følgende FN-mål
CV
Uddannelse og relevante kurser
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Student Exchange Master's Degree: Visual Communication Design, RMIT University

Relevant courses: Curating & Exhibition Design, Design Studio, and Service Design, focusing on visual communication, exhibition concepts, user-centered design, and strategic design development.