Brand Identity Study : Honeydew Skincare (pt. 2)

Read part one of this installment here.

I just started a new series of the blog called If I Had A… where I explore possible, fictional business ideas and build brand identities, advertisements, product mockups, emails, websites, and more.

The first installment of If I Had A, I explore a plant-powered skincare for health-conscious, natural beauties. The line is called Honeydew.

Catch up on part one where I show you how I lay the foundational blocks of this brand. I promise, this will all make more sense if you do.

All caught up? Nice. Let’s start where we left off.

• Visual Identity:

OKAY 😂 finally now it’s logo time! First, can I get a rant off? A brand is not a logo. It is really encouraging when I work with clients who understand this off the bat. The first time I had a client ask for a brand exploration and not a logo, I shed a happy thug tear. That’s what I’m talking about.

Visual identity is important, but for a truly captivating, consistent brand – the message must be explored and fine tuned. This can happen before or after the visual identity is done, in my opinion *shrug*. I don’t think it matters much, and they both can influence each other. I believe the brand foundation elements we explored should influence the visual identity WAY more than the other way around, though.

Okay, rant over. On to this logo.

First, here is the mood board as a reminder.

When developing the identity, I was inspired heavily by the line art of women’s bodies. The simple art still has lively movement and a sexy naturalness that the brand encompasses. The soft and bright colors in the mood board reminded me of the sweetness of femininity contrasted with the vitality of plants. Finally, the classic, classy, under appreciated serif font fit in well with the idea of movement.

Logo: The logo, inspired by minimal line art, represents the simplicity of beauty. It is a simple face outline, with a mole and a lash, with the brand name included in the lockup. Behind the face is a moving aura that changes colors and sizes and moods.

The simplicity of beauty. A face doesn’t need much to be stunning or to tell a story. The lack of detail allows the viewer to create their own story, create their own view of what beauty means. Beauty is not pre-packaged – is it self defined. This logo gives the room for the Honeydew Lady to “dew” her.

Typeface: Sans serif fonts reign supreme. They are modern, sleek, and slick. All of the brands competing for a similar consumer – Glossier, Youth to the People, Milk Makeup, and Moon Dust – ALL have sans serif fonts, and most of them are thick & bold. I don’t want this brand to fall victim to the same type treatment.

Serif fonts can really stand out in a unique way in this day and age. Not only are they classic, the extra extensions and strokes offer extra movement. I found this contrasting serif font Yessica that can play both subtle and strong beautifully for the main logo lockup. Dosis plays a great support to Yessica because of its rounded curves. It’s balanced, modern, and can play well with the messaging we established in part one.

Color palette: Pantone identified Coral as the color of 2019, and I’m so happy this beautiful color is getting its due shine. Cuz she my girl.

Soft coral represents the feminine confidence that Honeydew exudes. & cozied up next to soft, neutral taupe & a solid, refined gray-black – the base color palette represents the softness & strength of Honeydew.

Supporting the base palette is a mix of teal, royal blue, and mustard.

In product packaging, coral represents soft illumination of toning products. Blue + teal represent the hydrating properties of moisturizing products. Yellow represents freshness and invigorating properties of skin evening products.

Assets/Applications

Now, the fun part. Applying the identity to collateral, products, and more. Here are some examples of how the identity can look on products, business cards, and advertisements.

I will possibly revisit this in the future, but this was such a fun exercise that allowed me to showcase a look into my process of creating brand identities for clients.

I have a lot of ideas for content strategy, so we may have a part 3 focusing on more content for the brand – print ads, display ads, social, email, website – there are a few different options we could explore. Because my brand Identity exploration was so thorough, content strategy planning is simplified 🙌🏿.

I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did!

If you have a brand you want help developing – from strategy, messaging, or identity, contact me.