Defining the Challenge
Last summer, I had the opportunity to visit a very prestigious perfumery in the South of France, Maison Molinard.
While the fragrances and the place's atmosphere were utterly adequate, I noticed that the online brand and logo were lacking harmony.
The original logo was a combination mark, containing the name of the brand crowned with a capital M that was framed into a crown.
In my opinion, the original logo was created to reflect tradition and the concept of luxury reflected in the brand's products. The overall image was beautiful, however, it lacked readability, due to a high amount of focal points.
My mission for this personal project was to redesign a logo that would balance readability and reflect the brand's name while maintaining their visual identity.
The main challenge was to transform the previous logo into a logomark that could embody the brand's name and products as well.
Research and Mood Board
To create a new logo that would still reflect the brand's identity, I conducted a research process that helped me compose a mood board.
First, I had the opportunity to create my own perfume at Maison Molinard. The experience itself helped me gain an empirical perspective regarding the process of perfume creation and their products.
Second, I researched the elements that were crucial for understanding the brand of the company: their values, the history of the company and the manifesto upon which the perfumery was built.
Finally, I analyzed the existing UI elements: Typography, Color Palette, Previous Logo, Shapes and Forms of their products.
After my research on the company, I compared the information to other luxury brands associated with perfumes, like YSL, Chanel, Maison Margiela etc.
Combining all the above elements, I composed a mood board containing everything that needed to be transferred into the new logo: the lavender as the key element that composed their perfume manufacturing, the color palette, the styles of the existing products and the styles of the legacy perfume bottles, the existing logo and the logo of another luxury brand.
Sketching
Taking into consideration all the elements on the mood board, I tried to come up with different scenarios that would reflect the brand's identity while bringing a fresh look.
One crucial element in my vision was to integrate all the letters of the company's name in the new logo, while trying to integrate a bottle of perfume ad the main visual.
The tool used for sketching was Good Notes.
First Iterations
The first versions of the product embodied the general shape of the new vision, however, they were lacking structure in either lines or color.
From my perspective, in order to truly embody the essence of Molinard’s mastery, the logo should contain some variations of the lavender’s color in the brand’s colors, as well as in nature and in the watery finishes from a bottle of perfume. Hence, I combined both features to come up with the final versions.
Final Product and Design Rules
The final version of the logo contains a simplified bottle of perfume attached to the main letters of the name. Similar to the old royal signatures that embodied intricate combinations of all the initials of a name, the new logo has integrated every letter of the company's name, with M and L being the main focus points.
The final Design was realized in Figma with the Pen tool. The lines composing the final vector have rounded edges in order to create a smoother look.
The logo was designed in a Frame with the following dimensions: W 1500, H1500. The layout was based on a 50 pixels grid. The final version contains two variations of colors, the first one having the stroke HEX 5B2A85 with fill HEX F4E8FF for bright backgrounds andthe second one having the stroke HEX DFD0EC with fill HEX 5B2A85 for dark backgrounds.
