Petal & Leaf
The design process
This project was a dream come true — designing branding and packaging for a high end natural perfume line for Lara Claassen in Colorado, called Petal & Leaf. The goal was to create a beautiful, vintage-inspired, and completely custom product, down to all the little details.
A timeless collection of 100% plant-based fragrances
celebrating the art of natural perfumery.
Free of all synthetics, phthalates, parabens, preservatives and dyes.
Collaborating with Petra Cuschieri, we created a number of logo options to meet the needs of the brand, most incorporating some sort of strong floral element. Our modern floral interpretations weren’t really suiting the desired vintage feel, so we looked for old floral engravings to incorporate into the logo. We found a resource for a rose engraving, and recreated a version of it in illustrator and incorporated it into our chosen design.
One of really exciting prospects for this project was that we would be working one-on-one with a letterpress printer for the packaging, Genghis Kern (also in Colorado). Because the chosen perfume bottles were quite small, some adjustments needed to be made to the logo.
First, we created a stacked version to fit onto our very slim and tall boxes. Then we tested the logo at the small size it would be printed at. We thought the very fine details might be lost in printing, so a pared down version of the logo was also tested with less lines and detail.
After testing with the letterpress, the half texture was definitely the winner and had the right balance with the wordmark. We also tested some other logo variations and sizes.
Genghis Kern worked further to develop a die for the box itself, and we worked on different design options, like creating a pattern for the tops of the boxes.
Then, after fussing a little while over colour options for each scent, everything went to print! And we waited eagerly to see the final.
Jason from Genghis Kern also sent along a video of the boxes being printed:
Lara also commissioned display cases for stores from a local woodworker — love the attention to every little detail.
Overall, we are so happy with the design and how this came together! Thank you Lara for choosing to work with us on your passion project, we feel as passionate about Petal & Leaf as you do!
