SoulSmith: five blends, one carton system, on sale now

Client: SoulSmith · My role: carton and bottle-label design, artwork and print files · Range: five blends, each with a carton and a wrap label · Designed at Digitally Next

SoulSmith makes essential-oil blends in 10 ml roll-ons: Awaken, Balance, Core, De-Stress and Ease. Each one does a different job, and all five sit side by side on the same page of the shop. A customer had to tell them apart in a second and still see one brand.

The cartons also had a lot to carry: what the blend does, what's in it, how to use it, six certification marks and a full legal panel, on a front 44 mm wide.

One layout, five colours. Every carton has the same skeleton: logo, name, symbol, promise, format, volume, always in that order. Only the colour, the symbol and the botanicals change, so the range reads as a family before you read a word.

Give each blend a symbol. An eye for focus, waves for balance, rings for the gut, a lotus for calm, a spiral for release. All in one gold line weight, so they belong together and still can't be mixed up.

Keep the front quiet. The front says six things. Everything else moved to the sides and the back, one job per panel, so the legal copy never competes with the name.

The same system, shrunk to a 10 ml bottle: one wrap label in a single colour on amber glass, with the name on the front and the ingredients and use on the back. Price, batch and dates don't fit on a label that small, so the label sends you to the box, where there's room to print them.

Each colour went to the printer with its nearest Pantone reference, the type was converted to outlines, and every carton was exported as AI, PDF, EPS and CDR, so the file opened in whatever the press used. I also designed the kit box that holds all five, and the booklet that goes inside it.

5 blends on one carton system

10 print files: a carton and a label for each blend

4 file formats handed over for every carton

Printed, and on sale now