SOMA
A fully human-made brand identity for a botanical aphrodisiac oil — no AI, from honey-drawn logo to brand book.
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The brief
SOMA is a concept for a premium botanical body oil that sits at the intersection of sensuality and nature. Most brands in the intimate wellness space fall into two camps — overly clinical or overtly sexualized. SOMA occupies the gap: sensual but refined, warm but not provocative. The thesis framed the project as a direct test of what a human designer can produce alone, without any AI tools, in an era increasingly shaped by them.
I developed everything from scratch — research, naming, visual identity, colour system, typography, and a hand-made logo created by drawing letterforms in honey, photographing them before the liquid settled, and digitally refining the traces. From there I designed the label and packaging around a physical prototype bottle, shot all the product photography myself, built a website prototype, created social media assets, and documented it all in a brand book.
The visual language is built on warm amber and mahogany tones paired with macro textures of oil, light, and botanicals — intimate without being literal, premium without being cold.
Process
The logo started as honey on paper. I drew each letter by hand, photographed the shapes before they fully settled to capture the organic bubbles and flow, then scanned and refined them in Illustrator. The imperfection was the point — a tactile mark that no generative tool would arrive at.
Outcome
Bachelor thesis project — completed entirely without AI as a statement on human craft in contemporary design.
View the brand book in detail →