COP 3 Practical: Initial Ideas (scientific)

In order to explore the traditional branding of gender neutral skincare I've looked to develop branding based on a more clinical and scientific aesthetic as this is a very common approach adopted by brands who don't want to focus on gender as it creates a new USP. Initially I looked at making the focus of the branding the ingredients by listing them on what would be a front label in order to show consumers that the brand isn't hiding anything (see figure 1) in a similar way to The Ordinary who feature the key ingredients within there packaging. In relation to the logo used within these experiments I've experimented with a serif typefaces as although many existing brands use sans serif I thought it might add authenticity by making the branding look more luxurious, however it adds a dated look to the branding (see figure 1). Therefore sans serif typefaces where explored, with Avenir Next being used due to its simple and modern characteristics (see figure 2). Within these experiments I looked at creating quite a structured aesthetic using a basic box template to help visualise how the logo etc. would look in place. Although these experiments where clean cut and clinical, they where too simple (see figure 2) leading to the idea to incorporate the list of ingredients in order too make the design more complex, however this looked too busy (see figure 3). Having the logo on the side gives a clinical but modern impression and allows the focus of the packaging to the the product. Due to the simplicity of the logo I felt the packaging needed another element to show the difference between the products as just featuring the name was too simple (see figure 3-4). Therefor P1 (product 1) was uses to identify different product, therefor each product would have a number making them easy to identify for the consumer (see figure 4). Furthermore this also reinforces the scientific aesthetic as it takes references from the periodic table. However upon reflection of this it made more sense to use H1 (heka 1) to reference the product (see figure 5) in order to create more consistency across the brand. Throughout these experiments gender neutral colours (see figures 4-5) have been used in order to avoid creating connotations through colour with the charcoal looking the most professional, giving the branding an element of luxury as the red and orange make it look a little cheap. Throughout these experiments I also looked at how the logo could be presented across different elements of the packaging such as the lid, choosing to feature the logo in the bottom right corner to create consistency within the brand. Furthermore featuring H1 on the lid (see figure 4) made the design too cramped, whereas simply have Heka allows for a more sophisticated and simple aesthetic to be created, fitting within the scientific/clinical aesthetic that allows brands to add authenticity through design (see figure 5). 

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

Figure 4

Figure 5