One of my favorite things about this job is that oftentimes clients are friends and friends are clients. I’ve made lots of new friends thanks to happy client relations and sometimes clients and I go way back!

Way back in college I had easily the coolest freshman year roommate a girl could ever be randomly assigned. Actually, I had never met anyone that cool before and sometimes I needed a minute to catch up. Aviva was from New York City and she had a knack for finding chic vintage cardigans and leather bags in thrift stores. She’d been to France. She listened to music I’d never heard before, by Bon Iver and Dr. Dog and Beirut and Grizzly Bear. She had a Netflix subscription; DVDs you picked out on the computer then arrived in the mail!! She played the guitar and the banjo and the violin and could even sing opera but mostly just crooned ethereal melodies she had written in-between classes, and when she brought them to Thursday night Open Mic, boys cried. She made oatmeal each morning and we spent a year talking about everything. She wasn’t just cool, she was kind, and just the sort of friend I needed to navigate a new thing like college.

She transferred away to another school sophomore year, and we fell in and out of touch over the years. Our paths serendipitously crossed again two years ago as we both found our greater callings: she was farming and making skin care and I was farming and making logos.

Aviva founded Apis Apotheca, a farm-to-face brand run by farmers, herbalists, and educators who feel a duty to uphold traditions of equitable access to safe herbal medicine and knowledge. She brings together extensive knowledge in organic farming and herbal remedies to create products that are healing for the body, the community, and the environment. Aviva may be a friend, but I can genuinely say these are the best skin care products I’ve ever used. Golden Milk + Resin is my religion, and my skin is so much better for it. I really wouldn’t use anything else.

I was psyched when she started talking about a rebrand; it was time to elevate things with shiny new packaging. We put together what could be my most favorite moodboard of all time, featuring an eclectic mix of Italian runway fashion, Russian grandmas, ‘70s flower children, and cute little vintage jam jars. It was all over the place and made perfect sense.

One word kept coming up: juicy. When I went to design this brand, all I kept thinking was “it needs to be juicier.”

So I created a very folksy botanical pattern customized to each product. Lush green foliage is adorned with herbal symbols representing each formula: chamomile, calendula, gotu kola, wild rose, frankincense, and dragon’s blood.

The Homegrown Studio - Apis Apotheca Pattern.gif

Applied to the boxes, we had definitely hit “juicy” level. And complemented with jewel tones and gold foil details, there was a whole new luxury and intrigue introduced to the brand.

The screen-printed amber bottles and jars balance the maximalism of the boxes nicely with a single terra cotta color, softly carrying the botanical vignettes and general juice through the whole line

The result here is a brand that now embodies everything Aviva has been pouring into this brand: organic, sustainable ingredients, thoughtful, equitable herbal medicine, eco-conscious packaging, the sweat and love she’s put into her bursting gardens, a solar powered lab, and a certain - I don’t know - coolness that is just her.

I am so excited for this launch. What an opportunity when you get to design for a good friend, and a brand you truly believe in. Thanks Aviva!