Sitch is a hair care brand that delivers fuss-free, no nonsense hair care regimes to liberate everyone. Developed to suit your needs crafted by industry experts.
The Brief
The San Diego-based founders of Sitch, Anthony & Gloria Edge came to us with an incredible background in the industry (with over 30 years working with leading global hair care brands with the likes of Toni & Guy and Evo Hair) and a problem: We’ve always wanted a high performance, clean hair care range in cool sustainable packaging. We haven’t yet found one, so let’s create it.
They put their trust in us to create the brand from scratch and transform this dream into a truly sustainable range that stood out in their market. Hair(that)cares
As with all the work we do, we believe it’s important to start with a deep dive into the brand strategy process to truly understand their needs, and, in the long run .create a brand that isn’t rooted in trends, but in elevating the true nature of the brand.
This initial research highlighted the importance of liberating self-care by simplifying it so we wanted to create a simple online experience that creates bespoke bundles of planet-friendly products to suit individual hair care needs.
From there, the client’s vision Vision became :
To disrupt the current hair care culture with a no-nonsense approach, making self-care simple and effective.
From this point, we took them through our naming process and out of 100+ names SITCH came out well ahead of the rest. Sitch, a shorthand version situation, came from the idea that no matter your hair situation Sitch can be there for you. Less focus on hair problems, more hair empowerment. Liberating your and your hair, your way.
The Brand Concept
With a super sturdy foundation and great name we got to work, creating a series of brand concepts which touch on brand ID, packaging and web design. We soon landed one phrase that set our direction Function. Sitch prioritises cutting back on excess, no more forgotten products in the cabinet. We followed the same principle with the design, no excess details needed.
The logo itself is stripped back to a simple utilitarian san serif but still with some character in its full bodied form. We paired this up with pops of colour gradients that were surrounded by big areas of neutral colour, this helped draw the eye to key colour areas displaying feature copy. Keeping this simple, confident and punchy.
The Packaging Concept
The brief from the client was to create bespoke packaging that was beautiful, unique and with a major focus on sustainability. As a team we had narrowed down that the primary vessels had to be designed to be desirable enough that people would want to keep/display them in their bathroom. Then using refills to replenish empty vessels.
We knew that we wanted to create one form that could be replicated across a series of 9 SKUs but just in different size formats. Again thinking about function and no waste, we soon honed in creating vessels that could tessellate. When it comes to retail displays tessellation would also offer some real interest on the shelf of a salon, creating a modular-like cityscape. The tessellation can be seen in our GIF & video uploaded in the entry application.
The semi cylindrical body allows for bottles to tessellate neatly and gives the added bonus of sitting flat against a bathroom wall saving on space. The curved face softens the other side of the vessel which when put together with a matching SKU would create a full cylinder. Across the front and rear face of the body we developed a series of label embosses which look great when empty or filled. Sitch plans to release a range of labels that can be applied in the emboss areas so that you can customise your own Sitch. The sandy coloured bottles are finished in a satin wheat straw effect giving the look of a ceramic bottle which also softens the form. All pumps are also made to match this effect.
Finally each bottle is finished off with a product label the slots into the emboss provided. Graphically we used the bullseye gradients to represent the core properties of each product.
Secondary packaging for the bottles came in the form of a bespoke card belly band. The card slots over the pump head to create a 4 sided box which is open on the vessels front and back face. This open window effect helps the product to be visible when on display in retails and offers protection in shipping. It also creates an area to add on much needed directional content and some great tone of voice like Rinse, Refill, Repeat.
Materials & Sustainability
The material research was a crucial part of the packaging process, as it was important to reflect the sustainability of the product (free of silicones, sulphates, parabens, phthalates, artificial colourants, as well as vegan and cruelty free). This is why we opted for PCR plastic for the main vessels, and 100% recyclable PE for the refill pouches. PCR does tend to be a lighter plastic too which makes shipping more carbon efficient. While the vessels are still pa The belly bands are made from e flute card and don’t contain any nasty foils so are fully recyclable. As it stands Sitch is on the way to reduce plastic waste by 82%-89% with their 100% refillable range. Unless they can refill it, they won’t make it. At the point of production Sitch were the only hair care brand in the US that had an exclusively fully refillable range.
