Moustache Apothecaries
Brand Identity, Packaging, Website, and Campaign Design
Undergraduate Capstone - Redesign in Progress
Moustache Apothecaries was developed as a senior capstone project during my undergraduate studies in Communication Design. The concept centered on small-batch grooming products, drawing inspiration from traditional apothecaries and natural, time-tested remedies.
The brand was positioned to appeal to design-conscious consumers seeking heritage-inspired self-care, unisex, but with a distinctly vintage tone. This project included a full visual identity system, packaging design, conceptual advertising, and a website prototype.
Brand Concept & Identity
The logo was the starting point for establishing the brand’s personality. I explored dozens of iterations of the mark and wordmark. The final logo features a custom illustration of a stylized apothecary figure, paired with a slab serif wordmark chosen for its readable, vintage feel.
Packaging & Collateral
A minimal business card design established the tone: simple, slightly old-fashioned, and anchored by the illustrated logo. Product packaging followed suit, using textured backgrounds, framed label shapes, and consistent typography across the line. Each item carried the same identity forward in a way that felt handmade but cohesive.
Advertising & Brand Voice
The ad campaign draws on classical portraiture and vintage pop culture to reinforce the brand’s aesthetic and explore the idea of timeless grooming. Referencing familiar faces and eras, the goal was to create a sense of familiarity while positioning the products as part of a long-standing tradition.
Designed as subway ads, the series helped to define the brand’s voice, clever, confident, and self-aware.
Web Design
I designed three pages to bring the brand online: homepage, category, and product detail. The layout keeps things simple and approachable, using the same textures and tone as the rest of the system to create a unified feel.
Merch & Stickers
Two custom shopping bags were created to reinforce the brand voice one friendly and one cheeky. Labels, stickers, shopping bags, and digital ads all work in tandem to reinforce the brand’s personality.
Moustache-themed stickers would included in purchases to encourage customer participation in the campaign.
What I Learned
This was my first attempt at building a full brand system, and it taught me how to think across touchpoints. Over time, I recognized issues with legibility, focus, and how tone translated across formats. Working solo gave me freedom to explore, but it also forced me to revisit my own choices with a more critical lens, especially as I gained more experience in both design and strategy.
Next Steps
The brand is now in the process of a full refresh. I'm narrowing the customer profile, rebuilding the product line, and developing a new label system to better reflect the brand’s intended function and audience.
A new logo mark has already been selected, a refinement of one of the original directions, and serves as the foundation for this next phase. The website will also be reimagined using WordPress and Blocksy to better simulate a functional storefront and test the brand in context.
