Softness without noise, written down so it survives the tenth post

Client SkinishIndustry Skincare and haircareLocation Nigeria

About the client

Skinish is a personal-care brand selling skincare and haircare. It is registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission of Nigeria under the business name Skinish Ventures. We built the identity and wrote the guideline document that governs it.

The brief

A brand that has to read as calm in a category that shouts. Personal care is sold with superlatives, neon and retouching, and Skinish sells the opposite, so the system had to make restraint repeatable by somebody who was not in the room when it was decided.

The approach

The mark carries three things at once: a hibiscus flower for natural elegance, a regal motif for sophistication, and a droplet for purity. One shape, three readings, and none of them needs explaining before it works.

Most of the effort went into the document rather than the mark, because the mark was never going to be the thing that broke. A brand like this fails one caption at a time: a buzzword here, an exaggerated promise there. So the guide states the voice as three pairs a writer can actually check against: warmth not flair, clarity not cleverness, care not control. The photography rules do the same job in pictures: natural light, no over-retouching, diverse skin tones and textures, props kept organic. They are written as instructions to a photographer, not as adjectives.

Skinish is the feel-good brand for modern personal care. We offer clean, minimalist skincare and haircare that delivers softness without noise and quality without pressure.

Skinish, positioning statement from the brand guide

What we did

Logo system with horizontal and vertical lockups, icon-only and wordmark-only variants
Clear space and minimum size rules, specified for print and for screen
Approved background set, with the four grounds the mark is allowed on
A don'ts page showing the specific misuses to refuse
Colour system: a primary, two secondaries and two supporting neutrals, with HEX and RGB
Typography: Bricolage Grotesque for headlines, Outfit for everything else
Brand voice, personality traits, audience profile and positioning statement
Photography direction covering light, retouching, casting and props
Packaging guidance: recyclable or refillable containers, matte or paper-based labels
Social, email, website and retail display guidance