Two Times Elliott creates an “orderly yet unpredictable” identity for experience-led fragrance, Øthers

Øthers is a new brand that combines olfactory and audio experiences. Its home and body fragrances, crafted in Lisbon’s White Mirror Lab, are paired with an app that lets you immerse yourself in tailored sounds made by the composer Alex Ebert and electronic music producer Max Cooper. Two Times Elliott was enlisted to lead its brand strategy, visual identity, product design, production and motion. To enhance the multi-layered nature of the project, the studio aimed to magnify the “harmonious blend of the natural and digital realm”, using functional typography and technical typesetting, multi-layered grid systems, all the while trying to maintain a sense of mystery and allure.

Sitting at the heart of the new identity is its “orderly yet unpredictable” grid system, says design director Edmund Lock. For Øthers this grid system acts as a membrane, and allows various motion elements to synthesise, but its interchangeable nature prevents it from becoming too rigid and digital. While in some moments the system has a strict uniformity, in others elements overlap and intersect, giving a sense of fluidity.

In terms of typography, Two Times Elliott opted for Neue Haas Grotesk, for “ultra-precise” communication, and to give the brand voice a sense of “authority” and honesty, the studio says. To that end, the design team even went as far to give it a “cold and austere” appearance. The logo has various iterations, and in the motion graphics the “continuous sorting movement” is a nod to the attempt to synchronise mind and body. This, combined with Art Company Mono’s innovative typography system and an organic code system, takes the viewer on a “transformative” journey akin to that of the product itself, adds Edmund.

The fragrance comes in two scents, Mystic Zingaro, paired with a deep forest green, and Red Skies, paired with a light, orangey-red tone; and the packaging was made in partnership with the French, London-based artistic printers Imprimerie du Marais. One of the key features of the box design is its tactility; they all have 3D sculpted embossed lettering in Pantone Silver with a metallic effect, contrasting and elevating the type against the block colour finish. “It’s an innovative product that’s worth seeing in person to appreciate its beauty and uniqueness,” says Edmund.

Overall, Edmund hopes that the combination of intricate design, bold utilitarian type and light technical detailing will add “new dimensions to the user experience”, offering up countless opportunities for discovery alongside and in tandem with the physical product itself.