LabAroma

2013 Selection

Designed by Kathryn Wilson at Slater Design

Website & Software build: Thought Collective

Categories: Identity / Website

Website: labaroma.com/

LabAroma is a chemistry based, clinical aromatherapy software tool that formulates the chemistry behind essential oil blending. The idea for this new concept was presented to us as an Excel spreadsheet of the complex chemical formulae that would underpin the software. It was our job to design a brand, a piece of software, a website and a range of collateral that would make this concept understandable and easy to use for the students, aromatherapists and pharmaceutical companies it is aimed at.

In order to allow the user to blend aromatherapy oils virtually on the software we needed to first begin by thinking about how each oil would be represented. As the client was a startup, with a small budget, photography and illustration were quickly ruled out as there were hundreds of essential oils in the database. With this in mind we decided that each oil would be represented by a coloured circle. The idea of using circles and a strong colour palette to represent the oils quickly led to the realisation that these elements should be an integral part of the identity - creating a seamless experience across brand, software, website and collateral. Therefore, the logo we created employs a cirular full stop at the end which can change to any colour in the palette and is regularly animated. A key piece piece in the roll out of the brand was an instructional video which clearly explains how the software works and brings to life the identity through animation - this can be viewed on the homepage of labaroma.com.