Bringing a Calgary adventure soap company to life.
Role
Lead Graphic Designer, Terra Digital Agency
Deliverable
Identity, packaging, print, merch
Tools
Illustrator
Overview
The Challenge
Bowness Soapworks isn’t your average soap company. This Calgary maker forages and sources their own ingredients for small-batch, cold-pressed soaps, then takes those soaps on actual adventures: hiking, climbing, rafting, mountaineering. I led the brand from identity through to packaging and web.
Handmade soap brands tend to lean soft and spa-like, which didn’t fit a company whose soap has summited mountains. Bowness Soapworks needed a brand as bold as its adventures, with a strong sense of place, and a system flexible enough to carry several product lines without feeling scattered.
The Identity
The logo and branding for Bowness Soapworks pull straight from the local landscape, giving the brand a strong sense of place. By using local natural landmarks like the Bow River and Three Sisters mountains, I was able to give the brand a real sense of place. It’s paired with bold, confident type that holds its own on a tiny soap label or a big website header, and a wide colour palette that gives each product line its own personality while still looking like one family.
Logo Suite
Colour Palette
A wide, earthy palette pulled straight from the Rockies. It gives each product line room to stand out while everything still feels like it came from the same trailhead.
Brand Pattern
Typography
Lodestone Pro • Headlines
Inconsolata • Product stories
DM Sans • Body, ingredients and details
In The Wild
A Soap Club membership card linking members to perks from over 30 small Canadian businesses.
Crewneck merch that turns the wordmark and topo pattern into something people actually want to wear.
A bold, triple thank-you insert for Soap Club boxes, with the brand’s warm voice on the back.
The Packaging
Every bar gets a kraft sleeve with its own name and story. Back Country, Fireside Forager and Margo’s Mint each feel like a little adventure of their own, while the shared wordmark and topo pattern keep the whole lineup looking like family. Soap Club members get the full experience: a mustard mailer printed inside and out, a welcome message under the lid, and bars wrapped in topo tissue and tied with twine.
