Introduction

Project scope | Summer 2018 – Fall 2020

Management | Katy Aitken, James Greer, Jim Aitken

Photography | Roy Manniquil, Kristin Ellis, Becca Ruvalcaba

Design/Copywriting | Becca Ruvalcaba

Design assistant | Dylan Patty

In 2018, Elysian Labs and its sister company, Fresh Leaf, split apart, but Fresh Leaf’s products were still in demand. The newly created Eclipse needed a brand. I had a week to produce something preliminary and usable. The new product line required packaging, labels, and manufacturing tailored to stakeholder needs. After the preliminary phase was completed, the company had some breathing room. Refining the Eclipse brand identity and aura remains one of my favorite projects.

About the project

Since Eclipse had never been commercialized and lacked customer endorsement, it had to project a sense of reliability. Even though we already had customers who would be interested in our brand regardless of how it turned out, this base alone wouldn’t produce a sufficient ROI in comparison to if we actively sought out new customers.

Our brand had to gain the trust of wholesalers and distributors, most of whom had never heard of it before. The Eclipse pricing model was competitive for the sector, so cost was never a concern. That put us slightly ahead of competing brands, but we lacked credibility. My goal was to command respect and trustworthiness through an aesthetic that was clean, simple, and beautiful.

The Team

When this project was announced, I was the only designer. It was difficult to both brainstorm and pay meticulous attention to packaging details as a one-person team, since both tasks are different. I organized brainstorming sessions and feedback meetings with upper management, giving them a firsthand look at my workflow; in exchange, I discovered consumer trends in our particular sector. After the initial ramp-up period ended, I was given funding for an associate designer and hired two photographers to capture Eclipse’s serene imagery.

Challenges

The main challenge with Eclipse was developing a credible identity from scratch while simultaneously designing our product packaging. As a result, Eclipse’s first year lacked consistency due to this disruption in workflow. In addition, I began with little to no resources at a time when a full team would have been appropriate. Rather than get overwhelmed, I broke things down into smaller parts, consolidated tasks where possible, and gathered other brainpower to keep me on track.

Another challenge was that Eclipse needed to convey reliability despite never having been commercialized and lacking customer validation. In order to meet the deadline, I developed the brand framework alongside the packaging design. I gathered image references and inspiration to establish somewhat of a reference point; I wanted to plan for the future.

Mental workflow

Initiating my creative process requires an audit of available resources and setting up long and short-term goals. I break that down into smaller actionable goals that I can keep track of. Motivation is key with long-term projects, and setting milestone markers provides a positive reward system for rough patches. This chart best illustrates how I approached the Eclipse project with a gradual stepstone mentality.

Visual evolution

I later returned to further develop and enhance the Eclipse brand. I consolidated previous research about our customers and industry trends and utilized those ideas in our visual styles, imagery, verbiage, tone, slogans, and more. Eclipse was a brand with a living, adaptive framework as its core support.

Over the course of a year, Eclipse’s stylistic evolution became more consistent, defined, and confident. Our goal was to cultivate trust via a cohesive and scalable visual style that made the company appear far larger than it was. This growth included a brand glossary with visual aid icons that matched industry terminology, which allowed us to turn keywords into multi-purpose visual assets. It also gave Eclipse even more credibility and authority.

A new Eclipse

With the initial design phase finished, I further refined and defined our brand visuals. As mentioned earlier, our goal was to cultivate trust via a cohesive and scalable visual style that made the company look far larger than it truly was. This included a brand glossary that closely matched industry terminology, turning keywords into visual assets.