The Challenge
Fern & Co was entering the plant-based skincare category with a genuinely good product formula but nothing else: no name locked in, no visual identity, no website, and no existing audience to launch to. The founders had strong instincts about what the brand should feel like, but every attempt at DIY branding came out generic, indistinguishable from a dozen other skincare startups on the same shelf.
Our Approach
We ran the project as a single connected sprint rather than separate phases handed off one after another. Naming and identity development happened in parallel with early packaging concepts, so the visual language and the verbal tone reinforced each other from day one instead of being reconciled after the fact. Packaging design leaned into tactile, earthy textures to signal the plant-based formula without leaning on the tired green-leaf clichés common in the category. The launch website was built to tell the brand story in full before ever asking for a sale, with the actual purchase flow kept deliberately simple once a visitor was ready.
The Result
Fern & Co sold out their first product run within the launch week, well ahead of the founders' own projections, and secured coverage in three industry publications that typically ignore first-time skincare brands. The cohesive launch gave them a distinct shelf identity from day one, something competitors who launched years earlier still hadn't managed to build.
