Callaly is a femcare brand that resists “traditional girly” design cues

Tampon start-up brand Callaly has been branded by Design Bridge’s London studio with an identity that moves away from “girly” clichés.

Callaly is a 2-in-1 organic product, which combines a tampon and a liner. The brand, which works by a subscription model, also has a range of organic cotton period products.

Chloé Templeman, Design Bridge’s creative director, tells Design Week that the aim of the new identity was to “take something that is usually functional and hidden at the bottom of your bag and turn it into something that anybody could be proud of”.

She adds: “We’ve moved away from the traditional girly, pretty pink flower patterns or plain white ‘design’ of the category to something much bolder, more graphical, and that better reflects today’s consumers.”

The “bold pops of colour” and “contemporary graphical style” are an attempt to fulfill that ambition and move the brand away from “traditional feminine hygiene cues”. Peach pinks, blue tones and yellow are all part of the colour palette and overall the identity is “minimal”.

Packaging that customers “enjoy opening”

The packaging meets Certified B Corporation status – companies with the highest standards of social and environmental performance – and is made from sustainable and recyclable materials. The FSC recyclable cardboard boxes can be posted through customers’ letterboxes.

The studio also wanted to create a package that customers would “enjoy receiving and opening”. This includes a “playful” wave-shaped tear-strip that creates a “fluid opening experience” as the box’s “petals” unfold. On each of these petals is a piece of information about the company’s sustainability practices.

A bookmark has also been included in the packaging to promote Callaly’s Book Club, run via the company’s social media platforms.

Variable printing techniques have been used so no two wrappers are exactly the same, according to Templeman. Compostable and biodegradable materials are new to this category of product, so it was a “learning curve for us and the printers to make sure the final outcomes matched the creative vision”, she says.

A typeface with a “woman’s touch”

A bespoke font has been created for copy in an attempt to provide more “conversational pieces” of copy for the brand. This typeface can be seen on the delivery box, leaflet, website and social media. “We wanted it to be authentic,” Templeman says, “so we did some tests by asking different women in the studio to show us their handwriting.”

Once the “perfect” style was found, it was “tweaked” so that it would work across formats. The result is a “fully functional typeface, completely bespoke to Callaly, with a woman’s touch,” Templeman says.

“Our challenge was to not do what every other brand does”

Design Bridge has also provided brand guidelines and consulted on tone of voice. Here, the “challenge was to not do what every other brand does and focus on the hygiene factor,” Templeman says.

The fact that Callaly’s products are organic and do not contain dyes and pesticides was something to highlight, she adds.

Templeman says: “The tone we set is informative, but with the right amount of informality. It’s confident and bold, and talks directly to our consumer without taking it too far.”

Shifting the narrative around periods

There has been a recent trend in packaging design for period products, which aim to move beyond “quiet” design in an attempt to remove stigma around the issue.

In 2016, a new tampon brand Femme was set up in China to educate women about sanitary health.