What I love about working with my clients is that no brand is the same as the other. When you think about beauty brands, you probably imagine feminine colours, shapes and overall style. But Melissa from Garden of Beauty was looking for something more unique for her brand design.
The more talked about the project, more ideas came to my mind. There was the one that stuck in my head – the skin tone vibe mixed with denim-inspired blue shades.
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Below, you’ll find out more about Melissa’s brand, her brand keywords. Take a look below, which brand collaterals did she choose. Also, learn about the individualised solution for Garden of Beauty.
Before I show you each element of brand design, let’s take a look at the brand board showcasing all the elements:
All right, let’s dive into details!
THE CLIENT
Melissa Brown
THE BRAND
Melissa is a beauty blogger specialising in everyday beauty tips, in particular, advises about skincare, makeup, nails and hair for a woman to feel beautiful and special every day. On her blog Garden of Beauty, Melissa shares her favourite skincare and makeup product reviews, tutorials, beauty tips and lifestyle-related content.
BRAND KEYWORDS
Feminine, Beautiful, Light, Modern, Classy, Neutral, Soft, Romantic, Natural, Calm
THE DESIGN PACKAGE
THE PACKAGE INCLUDED:
BRAND IDENTITY DESIGN:
1. Logo design
2. Alternative logo designs
3. Submark designs
4. Colour Palette
Font Combinations
5. Pin It Button, Favicon, Signatures & Dividers
BRAND COLLATERALS DESIGN:
Social/Digital:
6. Website Buttons
7. Blog Post Graphics
8. Twitter Branding
9. Blog Categories Icons
Print:
10. Note Cards
THE SOLUTION
The new logo for Garden of Beauty helps Melissa, to be seen as professional and trustworthy, even though she is not formally trained in cosmetology, hair or lifestyle advice.
The new brand is showcasing Melissa’s strong passion for beauty and complement her blog’s content in a way that is a trusted resource for all beauty related subjects.
Despite the fact that there’s a word Garden in the brand name, Melissa didn’t want to use green or anything nature related to her logo and other elements. I’ve decided to design a colour palette which reminds of different skin tones and complement it with shades of blue inspired by denim.
BRAND DESIGN FOR GARDEN OF BEAUTY
BRAND IDENTITY DESIGN:
1. LOGO DESIGN
As I’ve mentioned, even though there is a word “Garden” in Melissa’s business name, she didn’t want to use any botanical elements in her brand.
When I was working on the logo design concepts, I focused on creating a not literal presentation of the garden vibe.
The letters in the logo give a bit of vintage/classic vibe of old books with flowers illustrations or the swooshes in the letters remind of ivy.
The little heart by the end of the Y gives the romantic feel and also, represents the facts what Melissa is truly passionate about her blog.
2. ALTERNATIVE LOGO DESIGNS
I created three alternative logos for Garden of Beauty. The first one (my favourite) includes the initials “GOB” along with the “Garden of Beauty” below, written in the secondary font.
The second alternative logo (in two colour options) is a stacked version of the main logo. The third alternative logo is similar to the first, just without the initials.
3. SUBMARK DESIGNS
The submarks for GOB were inspired by the first alternative logo. Again, I used the initials along with the outlined circle and “Garden of Beauty by Melissa Brown” around it.
4. COLOUR PALETTE
As I’ve mentioned, the colour palette for Melissa’s brand was inspired by skin tone shades and denim. These colours give a neutral and soft feel that Melissa was looking for. By simply looking at the sort of “nude” colours, you can instantly think that GOB is a beauty blog.
5. PIN IT BUTTON, FAVICON, SIGNATURES & DIVIDERS DESIGN
I designed the custom pin it button and favicon for Melissa, in the same style as the blog categories icons (outline with the background colour). I also designed a blog signature (xo Melissa) and hello signature. There are also three different dividers either to use them in the blog posts or in pages.
BRAND COLLATERALS DESIGN FOR GARDEN OF BEAUTY:
Social/Digital:
6. WEBSITE BUTTONS
I designed four, call to action website buttons for Garden of Beauty, which Melissa can use for her Homepage or About page. Website buttons are great for keeping the readers longer on the website and they improve the user experience. The buttons I’ve created are for Blog, About, Shop and Tutorials.
7. BLOG POST GRAPHICS
As usual, I created three blog post graphic styles for Garden of Beauty. The first blog post graphic template is for list posts, so for posts like “10 favourite skincare products of winter” where the “10” is in the circle. There’s a photo in the background, along with the colour overlay. I also added a favicon inspired version of the logo to the first template.
The second template (my favourite) has a photo background, colour box for the blog post title and the navy blue submark. The third blog post template includes the category icon on the top (the product review icon), one of the dividers and the alternative logo. This template is also photo-based on the colour overlay.
Each of the templates is customizable, so Melissa can change blog post titles, icons, logos, colours, photos etc. in Adobe Illustrator*
8. TWITTER BRANDING
For the Twitter branding, I used the navy blue submark logo as the profile picture and then created a corresponding Twitter cover with a navy blue background, white logo, tagline and submark in the right corner.
9. BLOG CATEGORIES ICONS
For GOB, I decided to create more simple icons/illustrations than I usually do for the blog categories icons. The first icon is a star, symbolizing product reviews, the second is lips, symbolizing beauty tips, the third is a heart, symbolizing lifestyle and the fourth one is a notebook symbolizing tutorials.
Print:
10. NOTE CARDS
The last brand collateral for Garden of Beauty was note cards design. The front of the notecard has the navy blue background, main logo and “note from”. The back of the notecard has the submark logo and website URL.
Now, let’s take a look at Garden of Beauty’s brand collaterals. See how cohesive her brand looks like when placed together?
And the cherry on top, a brand design, so brand board and brand collaterals on one image below:
I’m beyond grateful that Melissa chose me to create her brand identity. I couldn’t be happier with the end results we’ve got. I think that this was a different take on a brand identity for a beauty blog because most of the blogs like this use vibrant pink, gold or similar colours. I’m so happy to see the vision of brand design for Garden of Beauty came together in the less expected way than we usually see around the web.
If you want to learn more about my brand design package I’ve worked on with Melissa, just click the image below. If you’re ready to book this package, click here to fill the inquiry form
What do you think of the brand design for Garden of Beauty? Which design element or collateral of the brand is your favourite?
