Brand
Refresh
Refresh
Can eyecare inspire you to be young and free?
Duration:
April 2019 - July 2019
My Role:
Individual
April 2019 - July 2019
My Role:
Individual
Tools:
Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, Miro
Skills: Design thinking, UX research, Competitive Analysis, Ideation, Branding and Identity: Logo design, Packaging design
Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, Miro
Skills: Design thinking, UX research, Competitive Analysis, Ideation, Branding and Identity: Logo design, Packaging design
Context
Lenskart, India’s leading eyewear brand, was looking to expand into a new product segment: contact lenses. Unfortunately, their new brand Aqualens was not selling too well. They came to us at PMD India to figure out what was going wrong.
Project
I was responsible for conducting research and figuring out where the brand was failing and come up with a new brand strategy. I then redesigned the brand visually based on the new strategy.
Result
Aqualens’ new strategy and rebrand was a huge success across the country. It played a vital part in nearly doubling Lenskart (its parent brand)’s revenue in one year.
Aqualens was awarded the most popular contact lenses at the prestigious Elle Beauty Awards 2022.
My Process
Section One: Understand
Analyzing Aqualens’ current product and branding
What worked ︎
︎ A high quality product that was affordable
︎ Clear communication of product details on packaging
︎ A high quality product that was affordable
︎ Clear communication of product details on packaging
What didn’t ︎
︎ Uninspired packaging that looked too “medical”
︎ Lack of visual cues to differentiate product types
︎ No visual connect to parent brand Lenskart
︎ Ineffective GTM strategy
︎ Uninspired packaging that looked too “medical”
︎ Lack of visual cues to differentiate product types
︎ No visual connect to parent brand Lenskart
︎ Ineffective GTM strategy
Competitor Analysis
What
are they getting right and wrong?
︎ Trusted legacy brands that enjoyed a majority share of the market
︎ Clear communication of product details on packaging
︎ Wide range of products
︎ Clear communication of product details on packaging
︎ Wide range of products
︎ Outdated & unattractive packaging design
︎ Expensive
︎ Expensive
Target Audience Interviews
I conducted 25 interviews amongst people aged 18-60, to focus the user scope and goals. Some responses that stood out were:
Qualitative Personas
From my interviews, surveys, and market data obtained from Lenskart, two main personas emerged as shown below.
User Journey Mapping
Studying a typical Friday and Saturday of the personas led to an interesting insight.
Insights from research
From interviews:
- People often ignore lenses as an option due to difficulty in first-time onboarding, low product visibility and appeal.
- Product variants are difficult to understand and differentiate.
- Contact Lenses are more popular with female audience. (68% female, 30% male, 2% other)
-Contact lenses are much more popular with younger audience. (only 18% of users are over 40 years of age)
-Lenses give you more freedom in terms of style: outfits, makeup.
- People often ignore lenses as an option due to difficulty in first-time onboarding, low product visibility and appeal.
- Product variants are difficult to understand and differentiate.
- Contact Lenses are more popular with female audience. (68% female, 30% male, 2% other)
-Contact lenses are much more popular with younger audience. (only 18% of users are over 40 years of age)
-Lenses give you more freedom in terms of style: outfits, makeup.
From user journey mapping:
- When it comes to an older audience, contact lenses are preferred to retain a younger look, that results in increased confidence.
- Contact lenses allow you to freely transition between activities like excercise, work, and going out. ︎
- This “fluid” lifestyle ties in well with “Aqua”lens.
- Enabler of a more empowered consumer looking for a new/healthier lifestyle: zumba, crossfit, adventure sports, VR gaming, etc.
- When it comes to an older audience, contact lenses are preferred to retain a younger look, that results in increased confidence.
- Contact lenses allow you to freely transition between activities like excercise, work, and going out. ︎
- This “fluid” lifestyle ties in well with “Aqua”lens.
- Enabler of a more empowered consumer looking for a new/healthier lifestyle: zumba, crossfit, adventure sports, VR gaming, etc.
Aqualens could be positioned as the catalyst to your freedom.
As you transition through different parts of your day, the overlapping areas is where the brand flourishes. Freely go about your day without worrying about what you’ll be doing or wearing, Aquelens is not going to come inbetween.Functional Requirements
I don’t like using the D-word... but it felt like the industry was ripe for Disruption.
Section Two: Explore
Moodboarding
A. Bold and Indian.
As an Indian brand, Aqualens can differentiate themselves from their international competitors (Bausch+Lomb and Acuvue). This direction was a call-back to the patterns and typography associated with retro design in India. Employing a bold and attractive visual language would also help the brand stand out on shelves and create a point of entry for customers.
B. Fluid freedom.
This direction focused on certain insights derived from the research- freedom, transition, and overlap.
This visual language is built with colourful, fluid shapes to depict a young brand that’s all about freedom and ease. It’s also a visual cue to the “Aqua” part of Aqualens.
And the winner was... Option B!
Through research and surveys conducted with target users across the country, Fluid Freedom was a clear favourite. I also preferred it because it was timeless; it provided plenty of space in the future for experimentation and adaptation.
While option A would’ve been attractive and disruptive at first, the Indian retro aesthetic is overused by brands, and it didn’t make sense to use it in this case. Option B had a more direct connect to the brand and its product, and would be an easier entry point for new customers.
Visual Language Exploration
I began by sketching to kickstart the process, and then experimented with various shapes and overlaps on Adobe Illustrator.
First attempt at packaging design
The shapes are not constrained to the front of the packaging- they flow in the sides, back, and back into themselves. Because they’re for for contact lenses.
Get it.
No frames.
Logo and Logotype Exploration
I played around with the shape of contact lenses and eyes, and later moved onto a water droplet.While I tried to incorporate one of the shapes into the logotype itself, I later decided against it and kept the logomark and typography seperate. I chose a clean, light, and circuar typeface- Chalet.
The final logo is something that I’m quite proud of. It’s a mark that incorporated the main elements of the brand and product- an “A”, a water drop, a lens, and an eye.
It just... made sense.
It just... made sense.
Typography
Colour Palette
Result
The rebrand was a huge success that resulted in the brand capturing a large share of the market within two years. It was especially popular with younger users from Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities across the country.
Learning
This was one of my first large scale branding and packaging projects, so it was filled with new experiences and learning. I learned how to build visual packaging systems that could be adapted across several styles and sizes, how to communicate and collaborate effectively with large clients, and how to carry out a design project individually from start to finish.