SomeOne’s identity for eco cleaning brand Ocean Saver is designed to be stuck on top of competitor’s branding

Most cleaning products are 90 per cent water, so plant-based cleaning product range Ocean Saver comes in dissolvable pod form that you can drop into water, to cut down on single use plastic bottles (among other benefits such as reducing the transportation of water). For the startup’s visual design, agency SomeOne ran with that fact, creating as part of its identity a set of stickers that you can slap over other cleaning bottles to repurpose them, and remind you what’s inside. Not only that, the entire identity is cleverly designed for the product’s smaller-than-usual packaging, and to set the brand apart from its eco competitors.

“The sector is flooded with bland promises and greenwashing and we wanted to swim against that,” says David Law, founder and ECD at SomeOne. “So rather than go down a sector generic ‘eco’ design pathway defined by natural green colours, recycled logos, hand drawn type and illustration, we chose to be bold, graphic and positive right from the start in order to stand out from your average ‘worthy’ startup. Plus the packs are tiny so they needed to punch way above their weight on shelf.”

Based on the idea of a shoreline, SomeOne has created a bold, graphic visual world for the company, using ocean blue as its main colour with others introduced in relation to the colour of the individual product. Designed primarily for the pocket-sized capsule packaging and stickers (although used on recyclable bottles too) the key to the design was to attract attention, and stand out from its neighbouring products.

Aside from stripped-back graphics, typography was also key to this. The logotype uses a typeface based on Flyer SH by Edwin Shaar (published by Scangraphic Digital Type Collection), designed for legibility at a small size, yet with impact and subtle personality. “The tone of voice is designed to be positively provocative, speaking to all of us that know the cleaners we use are mainly bad for the environment, while appealing to the ocean lovers in us,” explains Law. Inside the lead ‘O’, the agency added a symbolic touch in the form of a droplet, alluding the brand’s USP. The supporting body copy uses Stag Sans Round by Village.

In print, the shoreline graphic pops up as a pattern within lettering, maintaining the pared-back yet punchy feel of the identity. Whereas in digital, the waves drift in and out of type-led imagery.