ONIC, Building Confidence You Can Actually Taste

For this project, I built ONIC, a sports energy drink brand centered on a single belief: confidence isn't handed to you, it's fueled from within.

I noticed most energy drink brands sell the same promise — hype, adrenaline, extreme stunts — but rarely the quiet moment of doubt that comes right before someone actually takes the leap. I wanted to build a brand that lived in that in-between moment, where hesitation turns into action.

Creative Direction I started with the mark itself: a flame motif reduced to its simplest form, two curved streaks instead of anything overly literal like a lightning bolt or a muscle icon. Every choice after that — the can design, the ad sequence, the tagline — got measured against one question: does this still feel like quiet resolve, or is it sliding into generic "extreme sports" noise?

Using Envato Envato powered the entire build. ・GraphicsGen for the flame mark and can label exploration ・ImageGen for the product renders — the three-can lineup, studio shots, background concepts ・VideoGen for the ad sequence across the three athletes ・Figma to assemble the final system and refine what AI left rough

Human by Design The can design took the most rounds. Early AI concepts looked sharp but generic, indistinguishable from any other sports drink on a shelf. I kept refining the prompts and rejecting outputs until the flame mark felt calm instead of loud, confident instead of aggressive.

That same instinct carried through the ad. My first video drafts kept drifting toward the same clichés this category always leans on: energy drink as the reason someone becomes brave, instead of something that simply stands beside them while they find their own courage. I kept steering it back — reworking the beats where the athletes receive the can, softening the framing so the drink never claims to cause the bravery, only to accompany it.

None of these decisions came from a single prompt. They came from knowing exactly what ONIC was supposed to feel like, and rejecting anything — however polished — that missed that feeling.

Created using Envato. Tools used: GraphicsGen, ImageGen, VideoGen.

I didn't want a drink brand that told you it makes you fearless. I wanted one that simply stood there when you found the courage yourself.