Makeup design doesn’t always mean prosthetics or extremes — that’s why the Emmy Awards smartly single out contemporary makeup design as its own category. But too often, those more immediately arresting designs are the ones that get all the attention. Not anymore. Join IndieWire in celebrating the makeup artists creating subtle, character-specific work for contemporary shows.

It’s easy for Morgan Gillory (Kaitlin Olson) to see patterns no one else can; the hidden goal for the team behind ABC’s “High Potential,” however, is to tell us everything we need to know about the characters without us realizing that we’re assembling puzzle pieces. The evidence for this is clear in the show’s makeup, where the team creates a key vibe we’re meant to pick up — often on just a few days’ notice.

The work starts with Morgan herself. Thea Samuels has collaborated with Olsen for over...