Most of our cases begin with a brief. This one began with a question: what would happen if we built a brand from scratch, with no client to answer to, and then had to sell it ourselves? The cosmetics shelf is crowded and predictable — sorted by skin type, body part or age, with packaging and promises that look alike. A new brand with no heritage, no retail network and no media budget would disappear there in a week.
So we didn’t compete on that shelf. Deep would be a niche brand, sold online only, built on a concept rather than a range. Because everyone reacts to life in their own way, we organised the brand around ten moods instead of skin types — from Relax and Revive to Divine and Harmony. Customers no longer asked “what is my skin type?” but “how do I feel, and what do I need right now?”
One naming formula — mood, feeling, product, scent — let each of around fifty products tell the brand story, from Calming Body Crystals to Heavenly Feet Protector. A custom lowercase wordmark sits in a square tile, every mood has its own colour, and heavy ultraviolet glass protects the natural ingredients. On a black-and-gold stage, the range reads like a colour chart of feelings. The campaign, “Houd van je schoonheid”, showed a laughing child with mud on her cheek instead of a retouched model.
Deep sold well online, grew through social media rather than ad spend, and spoke to an international audience in six languages. The Daily Telegraph published an extensive feature, the trade press followed and retail partners came knocking — proof that the mood concept travelled far beyond its home market.
Faced with the choice of becoming a cosmetics company, we stayed true to who we are and sold Deep to a longevity lifestyle centre whose philosophy matched the brand’s idea of care from within. The new owner kept the concept and products alive for several years. A strong concept beats a big budget, a brand is a system rather than a logo, and design has to sell — we learned all three on our own account.
The project in numbers:
Moods instead of skin types
Products in the range
Languages
Successful exit
Olaf Haarsma
