Epique Packaging Redesign by Itu Chaudhuri Design

Client – Alchem International
Requirements – Packaging Redesign

Epique is a premium skincare line founded on the superior quality of its plant extracts, a strength derived from its parent company’s 75-year history. With operations in Turkey and India and plans to expand, they approached ICD to redesign their packaging seeking a more luxurious position in the market.

The packaging must:
1. Establish the brand’s luxury position
2. Be strikingly visible on shelves
3. Establish the product’s premium pricing
4. For the longer term, be aimed to create a brand platform bullet based on the brand’s inherent strengths of “natural beauty enhanced by science.”

Epique had to carry Alchem’s legacy—one of an advanced, scientific manufacturer of high-quality plant extracts while maintaining its luxury position. With Epique’s claim of excellence rooted in science, it had to occupy the third space—at the intersection of science, beauty and luxury. And this had to reflect on the packaging design. This was the biggest challenge that the design needed to overcome.

Luxury skincare is at the centre of science, beauty and nature.

Epique’s strength stems from its parent company’s 75-year history of producing superior plant extracts for the world’s leading pharmaceutical and cosmetics companies. Its claim to be the best is founded on science. As a result, Epique’s approach to luxury required a third space. It would reside in the triangle formed by nature, science, and beauty.

Epique’s position in the third space allows it to occupy its chosen shelves with greater relevance and legitimacy, giving it a confident presence. The packs justify the product’s premium pricing. For the longer term, they aimed to create a brand platform bullet based on its inherent strengths: natural beauty enhanced by science.

Fits in the laboratory, clinic or a beautician’s studio.

A new, emphatic brand unit was developed to dominate the pack making it strikingly visible on the shelf. Epique is represented by its phonetically prominent letter rather than its initial, with the letter Q becoming a carrier of mystique and femininity.

Epique’s approach to luxury lives in the triangle formed by beauty, science, and nature, with its claim of excellence rooted in science. Its tone is aloof, and its vocabulary is technical and follows a botanical nomenclature. Its embellishments add to the tone by using typography that is appropriate for both informative labelling and fashion.

Solid green for nature and the clinic.

Epique evokes luxury through a visual style based on an economy of gesture. It is a hushed style with materials, colour and typography strategically chosen to achieve it. The solid green creates a colour-blocking effect on the shelf. Its hue suggests nature and the clinic, establishing Epique as natural and scientific at once, in keeping with the third space it occupies. Pearlescent surfaces are contrasted with hyper-reflective finishes to enhance Epique’s luxury and clinical feel.

It’s represented by the letter Q which is designed as a pair of leaves, giving it softness and femininity. The brand name and country of origin are nestled in the Q in a classic typeface that harkens back to the dawn of modern fashion. In keeping with the third-space principle, this balances out the packaging’s quasi-scientific tone.