The second studio/seminar bridge assignment entailed creating a dream brand and designing a product (a scent as the standard for this project) in order to build on our artistic skills. Not only did we have to create a brand that was targeted toward a particular audience, but we also had to conceptualize what kind of scent would appeal to this audience. Seeing as I was working opening my own clothing brand prior to the project, I had an easy time deciding upon the type of brand I wanted and the intent of such a brand. I knew that I wanted to focus on empowering the public, maintaining a meaningful message behind every design, and leaving a positive imprint in the world. All of this can be reduced to faith and spirituality which I like to see from various perspectives by studying different mythologies and belief systems. The one that I grew greatly fond of is Norse Mythology for its incredible stories and deities that are meant to resemble humans. Thusly, I named my brand after the Norse Goddess Freya, who represents love, sex, beauty, fertility, gold, magic, war, and death. I included all of these ideals and spiritual context into my manifesto which is meant to relay that sense of power even in the most dainty beauty.

I abstracted my logo from the Valknut, a Norse symbol of folk-remembrance, sacrifice, honour, dedication, and love for those who die in battle for our people. This is considered to be the truest act of love. Of course I do not want people to think that you must die to show your love. Rather, I took a more metaphorical and modern take on this act of dying for the greater good, where one is destined to endure many struggles on a mission to bring beauty to the world. In an aesthetic sense, I made the Valknut in my logo look less ancient and rugged to fit more with my brand. Once I was satisfied with my branding, I started on my product.

As a child, I was always intrigued by the Harajuku Lovers perfumes and how each scent had its own character. At the same time I wanted to work with the celestial aspect that comes with spirituality and Norse mythology. As I looked to the stars, I remembered the Pleiades Constellation (part of the Taurus horoscope and also my sign) has an alternate name: “Freya’s Hens”. I integrated ancient-old Greek myth of how Zeus transformed 7 nymphs, also daughters of Atlas (Maia, Electra, Taygete, Alcyone, Celaeno, Sterope, and Merope), into stars to mourn their father after he was sentenced to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders. I then married all of these disparate inspirations and ideas into one: I chose the 4 brightest stars in the Pleiades constellation, researched the traits of each mythological character with which it is associated, and created 4 different scents based on their traits. Then came the bottle design. I found an image of Freya online where she wore a winged helmet and her wings were also extended in a semicircle. After many iterations, I used a semilunar shape to represent her wings and the feathers on her helmet. I carefully chose the colors of the bottles based on the characteristics of each “star” as well. Though I created labels for the bottles, they seemed to take away from the overall “look” of the bottle. So, I decided to have the bottles engraved with the names of the scents. I also chose to name the line of scents “M45”, another name for the Pleiades constellation, to give a more prestigious ring to the name.

I continued the semi-circle shape into the design of the box. The construction of the box is when I learned many valuable skills including practicing intermediate techniques in wood-making, planning for every failure accordingly, and maintaining an unfaltering confidence that everything will work out as imagined. The same goes for the process of creating my display. As time trickled away with life bringing many unprecedented distractions (like the horrific flood in my dorm and late material shipments), I knew I had to let my ambition sizzle down and come to terms with areas in which I would not be able to excel as far as I had hoped. Nevertheless, I did my best to make my vision come to life and was still glad that I got to experiment with a new material—plexiglass— and laser cutting. Now I know which mistakes not to repeat again, such as always measuring and remeasuring, taking precautions to ensure a clean end result, and researching any new material before working with it.

Last but not least, I created both a magazine and billboard ad that would capture the essence of the brand. At first, I had a messy, unprofessional edit of an aurora in the background of a not-so-great picture. With more rummaging through the pictures from the photoshoot, which also took a lot of planning and coordinating, and help from my peers I found the perfect set of images that I chose to edit. The slogan for the ad campaign pretty much came to be from the top of my head and I stuck with it because it felt most right. This time around while editing the photos, I made sure to not edit out the nature background and keep it as high-fashion magazine as possible and eventually I was ecstatic at the results. To elaborate more on the photoshoot process, I first had to find the perfect models that would encapsulate the image of each Pleiades star. Then, I made sure to plan with a lot of time ahead in case of any weather issues- which in fact did occur and the girls were more than willing to accommodate on different days. Throughout the days leading up to the photoshoot, I worked on the models’ costumes in order for them all to fit the aesthetic of Norse goddesses even more so. I searched up many inspirations for makeup and hair beforehand and by the time the day of the photoshoot came, everything was ready. I got everyone dressed and made up just in time for the “golden hour” for photo-shooting. Overall, I impressed myself with the amount of work I was able to get done and obstacles I overcame with so little experience. This was my first true test at what still awaits me in the future.