The Creation of the Be:Loved Brand with Popp Studios

Want to learn more about the creation of our brand? We worked with the incredible Popp Studios to bring to you Be:Loved.

Written by Molly Long – read the original article here

London-based design consultancy Popp Studio has created the identity for luxury pet care brand Be:Loved.

Be:Loved is the brainchild of Carina Evans, who grew up on a farm in Dorset. The products are based off of an “old family heirloom” recipe book of farmhouse remedies created for the family’s working animals, and thus use “nothing but the hedgerows and nature’s harvest” as ingredients.

The Popp Stduio team was introduced to the brand and Evans through a colleague, and were briefed to design the identity from the ground up, with the work including naming, packaging and brand communications.

“A nice discoverable feature”

As Be:Loved products are derived from natural sources, this was a key element to highlight in its identity, Popp Studio managing director Andrew Slade tells Design Week. Packaging for the different products features a hedgerow graphic treatment to visually tell this story.

“This ‘hidden in the hedgerows’ idea aimed to play up to the idea that the family had foraged for the ingredients used within each product,” he says. Animal silhouettes have been added to this design too.

“The idea is that the longer you look at the packaging, the more you start to pick out the different concealed elements,” Slade continues. “We wanted it to be a nice discoverable feature.”

“An identity that straddled both luxury and pet care markets”

Again playing on the products’ nature-inspired origins, Slade explains that an “understated” colour palette has been chosen. This also serves to give the brand a sense of luxury, which is where Evans wanted to position Be:Loved on the market.

“The real crux of the challenge for this project was in how we could create an identity that straddled both luxury and pet care markets,” he says. “Luxury can feel exclusive, while pet care is usually anything but.”

For inspiration, the Popp team did a “deep dive” into both worlds, Slade says. Design cues were taken from aspirational beauty brands, which is why Be:Loved looks considerably different to most pet products.

A “high-five” inspired logo

At the same time, it needed to feel accessible to all “pet parents”. The logo is an attempt to offer up some of this accessibility, according to Popp Studio creative director and co-founder Poppy Stedman.

“It combines the heart, the universal symbol for love, with the ‘Be’ prefix of the name and the paw print,” she says. “It’s recognisable and packed with different layers of meaning.”

Stedman adds that the positioning of the logo at an angle on pack is also a nod to the “high-five”, or perhaps “high-paw”, trick that owners can do with their pets.

“A template to talk about the products in a functional way”

Be:Loved also marks the first time the Popp team have been involved in the naming of a brand. Stedman says this was a challenge, but also provided the team with an increased flexibility for the work.

“Coming up with a name like Be:Loved meant that we could tie everything together in a really seamless way, and allowed us to push the copy to the fore of the packaging,” she says. “You’ve got all these different ‘Be’ variations, and we used that template to talk about the products in a functional way.”

Different products feature a different ‘Be’ suffix, which indicates how it can be used. Examples include “Be:Bug Free”, “Be:Soft” and “Be:Calm”. By clarifying the different uses on pack, the team is again attempting to make it feel accessible.

“If we went too cutesy, it could be off putting for potential customers, but at the same time pet parents don’t want something exclusive and snobby either,” Stedman says. “This was a satisfying middle ground.”