Case Study:
Pure Life Soap Co.
Mission
The Pure Life Soap Company hired me to help refresh their line of organic shampoos & conditioners. At first the scope was a simple label design update, but after more conversations with the client, we settled on a strategy to do a larger product overhaul.
Roles
Product Design Lead
Illustrator
Strategy
The first thing we decided to change was the product bottle. The previous packaging was a tall-thin squeeze bottle with a small label in the middle. My suggestion was to change to a shorter & wider round bottle with a built-in pump top. This would improve function by improving shower shelf stability and eliminate the need to pick up the product to use it. This change would also allow for a larger wrap-around label to have more graphic space.
For the graphic direction, the client wanted to move away from literal photos to more loose abstract graphics. With the first round of sketches I played around in Adobe Illustrator with a floral paisley print and a second pattern meant to feel like plants under flowing water, with both options colored to feel like each shampoo ingredient.
This direction was a lot closer to what the client was looking for, but they didn’t want the same graphic across all bottles and wanted something that had a little bit more ‘hand’ to it. I decided the best way to get a series of different hand-drawn labels that felt like the same family would be to draw a single contiguous illustration and use different sections for each label.
I laid out a long piece of paper large enough to accommodate all the different product labels. I sketched out a flowing illustration of abstract floral elements in blue pencil, leaving strategic open space to fit the logo and product name. When I had a completed sketch I was happy with, I inked the illustration with black marker and scanned the artwork in pieces to turn into vector art in Adobe Illustrator.
Once I had vector artwork approved, I added the logos, product information and created final print files. The client had paid for an ad in a retail trade publication that was scheduled to go to print before the bottles were going to be ready, and asked if I could turn around an ad with mocked up bottles on a very tight deadline. I used the 3D tool in Adobe Illustrator to mock up the labels to match the bottle stock photo and designed an advertisement with the illustrated products.
