Aura: A Fresh Take on Laundry Detergent
For this project, I was to research and analyze the brand space of any product found in a grocery store. The goal was to identify and thoughtfully fill the white space present in the market. I created a laundry detergent brand named Aura focused on environmental friendliness and irresistible scent.
Fall 2023
Tools
Figma, Illustrator, Photoshop
Objective
“Design an identity and brand for a new product after researching the chosen brand space”
Duration
3 weeks
Identifying Other Brands
Preliminary Research
Having chosen laundry detergent as my product, I began by gathering information and images about other brands’ packaging, advertisements, and values. I then identified trends in their advertising and categorized them into 4 main groups: family-oriented, eco-friendly, powerfully clean, and irresistible scent.
Creating a Brand Matrix
Identifying White Space
The next step of this project was to take the information that I had gathered from my research and plot it on a matrix, helping me identify the white space in the laundry detergent branding market. In creating this matrix, there was a clear area of opportunity in the “happy nose, happy planet” quadrant. This category was for detergents that heavily marketed both their eco-friendliness and the quality scent of their product.
I now had the direction and identity for the product I was to create: a laundry detergent marketing its eco-friendliness and amazing, long-lasting scent.
Forming a Brand Identity
With the direction of “happy nose, happy planet” in mind, and after a period of ideation, I decided to name this brand “Aura”.
Why Aura?
Aura
noun
the distinctive atmosphere or quality that seems to surround and be generated by a person, thing, or place; stores and online
(in spiritualism and some forms of alternative medicine) a supposed emanation surrounding the body of a living creature and regarded as an essential part of the individual.
This, in essence, was what I wanted to formulate my brand around. Those who use Aura will have a distinctive atmosphere of irresistible scent that surrounds them and lasts all day. At the same time, Aura is eco-friendly, meaning that the user is also passing this positive energy and impact into the world by choosing a laundry detergent option that is good for the planet. This is also where Aura’s slogan “emanate goodness” comes from.
Creating a Logotype
Before I could create a logotype for Aura, I first needed to select a typeface for the brand. I wanted to find something that felt fresh, bold, friendly, young, and iconic. I started by collecting a good amount of typefaces that stood out to me and narrowed them down during type pairing.
I moved forward with Blenny and Puffin Display Soft as Aura’s typefaces as their soft curves paired together to create a friendly and approachable feeling while Blenny’s bold and unique design was perfect for an eye-catching and playfully iconic display type.
My goal for the logotype was to create something simple, clean, and bold that hinted at or illustrated an aura in some way.
This logotype has an aura that “emanates”, evoking the feeling that when you use this product, you too will emanate a wonderful energy and scent. It is clean, playful, friendly, pleasing to the eye, and draws in the viewer’s attention.
I can’t look away!
Designing the Packaging
As a brand with eco-friendly values, the packaging designed not only had to look appealing visually but also make sense environmentally. For Aura’s packaging, I decided to utilize a milk carton design. The material is compostable, meaning that it will biodegrade with no harmful residue, the square design makes shipping the products more space-efficient than round bottles, and the detergent is highly concentrated, so only one small capful is needed for measuring and washing.
Aura’s values are explained on the packaging including instructions to plant the packaging once you are done. With scent as Aura’s other main value, I wanted to ensure this was evident throughout the design. Each carton of Aura includes information about the fragrance notes present in the scent as well as a scratch and sniff circle for consumers to test if they like the scent before they buy it. Additionally, Aura’s website offers customizable scents, so everyone can find an Aura that suits them.
The packaging includes bright colors, a bold typeface, friendly, soft illustrations, and repeated visual motifs of “radiating” shapes and auras.
Aura cartons are available in 32 fl oz, 16 fl oz, and 8 fl oz, giving users the flexibility to try out all of the different scents or commit to their favorite Aura long-term. I redesigned the packaging to accomodate these other sizes as certain elements needed to change in order to fit into the new real estate. I designed all 4 sides for all 3 sizes in 4 different scents.
Making it Real: Mock Ups
At long last it is time to create mock-ups and bring Aura to life! I wanted to ensure that in these mock-ups, I included examples of different scents and sizes available with Aura and demonstrated how those would be designed. Floating in radiant rainbow energy, this illustration of Aura is playful and inviting.
Future Improvements & Reflection
I am currently learning Blender, and in the future, I would love to use this new skill to improve the product mockups for Aura. Looking back on this project, it is still one of my favorites, and although I went through a rough patch where I hit a creative wall, I returned to this project a few months later and am proud of the result and how I pushed through this creative difficulty with fresh motivation. Stay tuned for my Blender mockups! Hopefully coming in summer 2025 :)