How B&W Graphic Lab positioned Bloom’s hand cream as a trendy accessory — The Brand Identity – Home of the Greatest in Graphic & Brand Design

The brief set to B&W Graphic Lab asked the Shanghai-based design studio to position Bloom’s hand cream range as a trendy accessory. The brand’s premise is that hands are like flowers, needing care and patience before they bloom. “The client had previously collaborated with us on a fragrance brand,” the studio tells us. “This time, they wanted to move away from their previous style and embrace something younger and more fashionable.”

“We deliberately avoided the conventional ‘skin-nurturing’ tone that is typical in hand care branding,” the B&W team explains. “Instead, we pursued a visual language that fuses multiple fashion-forward elements. Our primary reference came from the art of flower arrangement (Ikebana).” The wordmark is drawn as one continuous looping line in a brush-like stroke, with the lowercase letters of ‘bloom’ emerging from the loops.

“The overall logo and secondary graphics were inspired by the lines of flowers and vines. We used abstract circular compositions to capture the moment of blossoming,” the studio details. “Throughout the drawing process, we also incorporated the rhythmic cadence of traditional Chinese calligraphy, which is why even in the secondary graphic variations, the brand logo’s visual thread remains recognisable.” The round parts of the ‘b’ and the ‘o’ are drawn as blooms, the ‘l’ and the ‘m’ as vine-like tendrils. The studio sketched the rough forms by hand on an iPad and produced the final artwork in Adobe Illustrator.

Black is the constant, with cyan, deep blue, lime green, magenta and yellow used as accents. “The colour system relies primarily on vibrant contrast,” the studio notes. “By layering multiple bright colours, we aimed to shape a sense of olfactory uniqueness and youthful energy.” On the tubes, the looping mark is black with a second loop in a colour that changes with each of the three variants – light blue on Miyabi, deep blue on Chanoyu and pink on Ukiyo-e. “Much like the art of flower arrangement, we used colour palettes and graphic variations to guide the perception of different scents,” B&W continues. Skia is the primary typeface. “It has a natural sense of rhythm and bounce to it, which fits well with the organic, living quality of plants and flowers that we wanted to express.”

The three variants come in 50ml tubes of crimped silver aluminium with black ribbed caps. “Miyabi represents the more refined, artistic court culture of Kyoto,” the studio explains. “Chanoyu speaks to a fashionable interpretation of the Japanese tea ceremony. Ukiyo-e conveys a rich, luxurious sensibility.” A slim dark carton has the loop mark, ‘bloom’ wordmark and figure 794–1185 – the perfumer’s coding system for the fragrance. L’Occitane’s Shea Butter Hand Cream lived for years in a recycled aluminium tube, and Aesop’s Resurrection Aromatique Hand Balm comes in 100% recycled aluminium, so the tube is somewhat of a category default. Hand care’s prevailing look is botanical illustration, apothecary typography and muted naturals, but Bloom has a gestural line drawn straight onto bare metal.