Multidisciplinary design agency Mucho have recently published their branding and packaging work for Fisix, a line of cosmetic products that includes shower gels, shampoo and hydrating skin balms, developed by four marathon running friends who ‘couldn’t find a range that met their needs as sportsmen’. Mucho’s design solution unties the diagrammatic, geometric forms and typographical, sans-serif utility and neutrality of the pharmaceutical and sports science industries with the subtle fashion and on-trend design sensibilities of a tightly spaced, lowercase serif logo-type, italics, and a flat, economical, unisex grey and pastel colour palette.

“The initial phase was to create a name that reflected a contemporary way of practicing sports that would appeal to sports men and women. We then generated a visual system that differentiates each product by using the lines that appear in courts or limits of sporting fields. By cropping and reinterpreting these lines we created liberating abstract shapes. We utilized a mixture of pastel colours with a dark gray as well as elegant typography in the logo to appeal to both a masculine and feminine audience.”

- Mucho

More work from Mucho:

Richard Baird Richard is a British freelance designer and writer who specialises in the development of logos, branding and packaging. He has written for Brand New, Design Week and The Dieline, has featured in Computer Arts magazine and also runs the resource Design Survival. Follow:     |     Twitter     |     Facebook     |     Portfolio     |     Contact

Cocolobo is described by Anagrama – the multidisciplinary design agency behind their new visual identity – as a ‘high-end shopping boutique that caters exclusively to strong women with a confident and in vogue fashion sense’. For the name, Anagrama played with the patrons’ ‘characteristic duality’, with a ‘catchy and fun’ compounding of  ”Coco” (coconut in Spanish) and “lobo” (Spanish for wolf), which helped to define the ‘Cocolobo woman’ as ‘not only feminine and sweet, but also independent, aggressive, sensuous and daring’

The agency captured and conveyed this duality in print through the combination of a black and white colour palette ‘portraying the elegant, sober aspect of the brand’, a red highlight to represent ‘all that is feminine and chic’, and the contrast of the logo-mark’s playful familiarity and the logo-type’s sense of exclusivity.

Although I would not have described the project as particularly reflective of the aggressive or daring nature of the ‘Cocolobo woman’, Anagrama have managed, through size and pattern, the tactile, high and subtle craft qualities of an uncoated, debossed material texture and foil print finish, to infuse a distinctive and proprietary quality into the very generic form of a heart. This universality has been appropriately tempered by the conventional but high-fashion sensibilities of the well-spaced, uppercase characters of a modern serif logo-type, the borders you might associate with Chanel and the timeless restraint of a black, white and cream colour palette.

More from Anagrama:

Richard Baird Richard is a British freelance designer and writer who specialises in the development of logos, branding and packaging. He has written for Brand New, Design Week and The Dieline, has featured in Computer Arts magazine and also runs the resource Design Survival. Follow:     |     Twitter     |     Facebook     |     Portfolio     |     Contact

Based around their phi­los­o­phy of health and well-being, Swedish drug store chain Apotek Hjärtat have recently developed Apolosophy, a new, carefully formulated cosmetic line that includes products from the skin and hair care, makeup and sunscreen categories. The range’s visual identity and packaging solution, created to be perceived as tactile, timeless and trustworthy by design agency BVD, unites the on-trend accessibility of a near consistent single line weight, soft curves, rounded terminals, all lower-case and well spaced letter-forms and a simple repetition of form through the ‘a’, ‘o’ and ‘p’, with the classic sensibilities of a black and white colour palette, the quality of a matt surface texture and the restraint of a logo-type only solution across the packaging. The result, while pared-down, really emphasises, compliments and unites the colours and textures of the products with a subtle utility often associated with professional grade cosmetics.

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Richard Baird Richard is a British freelance designer and writer who specialises in the development of logos, branding and packaging. He has written for Brand New, Design Week and The Dieline, has featured in Computer Arts magazine and also runs the resource Design Survival. Follow:     |     Twitter     |     Facebook     |     Portfolio     |     Contact

Anagrama have just completed the branding of Romero+McPaul, an English-style velvet slipper manufacturer and retailer established by Italian shoemaker Mr. Migliori that produces bespoke lines handcrafted by artisans with a ‘trendy twist’.

“For this project, our inspiration was heavily drawn from traditional English types and coat of arms mixed with the over-the-top luxuriousness of The Hamptons and it’s sailing and yacht club maritime lifestyle. With the intention to speak of the product’s duality, we created a storyline based on two characters, Romero and McPaul. Romero is the mischievous heartthrob, representing the product’s playfulness, warmth and latino heritage, while mMcPaul is the serious, traditional man, embodying the product’s ancestral and upscale British nature. We gave the brand the rosemary (or “romero” in Spanish) not only as a wink to its name but also as a reference to this herb’s curious nature, as it only grows close to the sea.”

- Anagrama

The traditional, personal and heraldic ornament of the monogram, the material textures, gold stitching and luxury of the interior, set alongside the more progressive but period qualities of a logo-type built from an efficient contrast of wide and slim, well spaced, uppercase sans-serif letter-forms, raised and underlined detail bound by a consistent single line weight – elements reminiscent of Victorian signage – makes for an interesting conceptual and aesthetic duality. One of flourish and functionality that relates really well to the individual crafted nature of products with a clear practical purpose, the name and divided personalities of the characters behind it, and the period and country from which Romero+McPaul draws its inspiration. These retrospective elements are neatly enhanced by the more contemporary sensibilities of broad unprinted regions across the collateral, the utility of a typewriter slab-serif and the restraint but impact of a bright orange and black colour palette.

More from Anagrama:

Richard Baird Richard is a British freelance designer and writer who specialises in the development of logos, branding and packaging. He has written for Brand New, Design Week and The Dieline, has featured in Computer Arts magazine and also runs the resource Design Survival. Follow:     |     Twitter     |     Facebook     |     Portfolio     |     Contact

James Braund is a Melbourne-based photographer with a background in journalism, an approach ‘characterised by an unfussed, direct methodology’ and over twenty years of experience in the design editorial and advertising fields.

Arising out of a ‘desire for a more contemporary look aimed at designers and art directors’, James’ new identity, developed by Hofstede - an agency committed to typographical craft and detailing – conveys his methodology by leveraging the economy, utility and contemporary sensibilities of a heavy, uncoated, unbleached mixed fibre board, an urban combination of cool and warm concrete greys, the restraint and what Hofstede describe as the robust typographical choice of Akkurate executed with a stacked, uppercase confidence and a good eye for letter and line spacing. This type-only approach is elevated by the high quality finish of a foil set within the reductionist context of broad unprinted regions used across the collateral. The result is a modern aesthetic neutrality and fine detailing that neatly frames the rich detail of James’ photography.

Visit the BP&O Logo Gallery for a chronological guide to all the identities reviewed on BP&O.

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Richard Baird Richard is a British freelance designer and writer who specialises in the development of logos, branding and packaging. He has written for Brand New, Design Week and The Dieline, has featured in Computer Arts magazine and also runs the resource Design Survival. Follow:     |     Twitter     |     Facebook     |     Portfolio     |     Contact