Start-Up Logo & Branding

Makaaina is a small, women-owned, essential oil start up. Makaaina has it's roots in Madagascar, where the name comes from, meaning "to take back life." Owner and chemist wanted to connect not only the quality of her essential oils to improving life but also to the place they are from; sourcing all the raw products from Madagascar.

Logo, branding icons, social media, packaging

Process

Research

As part of branding researching, I conducted a survey of Reddit users in the r/essential oil group. You can view my survey results and brand competitor break down here. Frequent essential oil users consider themselves experts on oils and are wary of newcomers. The field is overly saturated with competitors of varying quality. Standing out with a great logo was my first challenge.

After meeting with the Makaaina stakeholders and asking them to complete a brand brief, I crafted a list of Brand Attributes, Brand Values and a Logo Proposition.

Originally, they asked for something with a triangle, green and pinks. While I did offer a version option with those elements, every designer knows that sometimes you have trust your designer to find unique solutions. Ultimately, I incorporated a pink into the color palette.

Color palette & Web Graphics

Various graphics to indicate blends, hyradtion, touch, collection and air serve as subtle indications to the use and forma. design system that can grow s the company grows.

Brand Attributes
Limited quantities
Small batch
Women owned
Madagascar connected
Individually sourced raw materials
Wellness Centered

Brand Values:
Passion
Nurture
Knowledge
Quality

Logo Proposal
Modern/ Artistic
Minimalist / Subtle

Brandmark

In my exploration, I decided to split Makaaina in two words. The main reason is I felt this made the name more approachable for an American audience. I didn't want the the name to be a barrier to acceptance of the brand.

The raw ingredients for essential oils are plants, nurtured by rain and wind. I incorporated these elements into the logo as a nod to the land of Madagascar. These elements, water, plant and air are part of the essential oil distillation process.

Bottle

Website Icons

A product only works if you know how to use it. I thought it was important to have icons to show each essential oil is intended to be used. Certain oils can only be used particular ways. These icons are a quick way to visually tell each oils unique story.

Favicon

Icons in use

Packaging

Besides offering individual oils collections are sort of a starter pack for users. Presentation is important and I thought a custom sticker and tissue with our collection graphic was a nice subtle touch of elegance.

Label

Socia Media

Launching a start-up meant experimenting with a variety of graphic styles to reach an audience. We had a couple of goals: to introduce casual users of essential oils to some of the more elite oils and to educate on the healing characteristics. A lot of people think essential oils are just nice smelling oils but there are a real oils with therapeutic benefits; these are what Makaaina focused on. Some of the oils Makaaina produced are rare in the US to purchase. We also wanted to emphasize the correct ways to use oils, in our copy we tried to share those methods to hopefully make them more approachable.

Home

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse