Design · Brand · Natural Cosmetics
USE
blessing, good fortune — from Yoruba
Design for USE Àwúre, a natural cosmetics brand rooted in Afro-Brazilian culture. Àwúre comes from Yoruba and speaks of blessings and good fortune, and the visuals had to carry that meaning with pride.
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Brand creation · USE Àwúre
The work
Process
I
Before designing anything, I immersed myself in the brand's universe: its Yoruba name, its natural ingredients, its celebration of Black beauty. The story came first; the layouts came after.
II
The brand's imagery is rich: golden fabrics, warm skin tones, linen and botanical textures. My design frames that beauty instead of competing with it, with typography and color pulled from the photographs themselves.
III
From product shots to social pieces, every layout follows the same warm, earthy logic, so wherever the brand shows up, it's unmistakably USE Àwúre.
Outcome
“The nicest feedback I got was from an older Black woman who said: ‘Bruna, do you know what I liked most about your product? It's that I look at it and I know it's for me. Because I don't feel represented by any other natural cosmetics brand.’
That was exactly what I wanted, Rê! I'm so happy! Thank you so much, again!”
Original: “O feedback mais legal que eu tive foi o de uma senhora negra que disse — Bruna, sabe o que eu mais gostei do seu produto? É que eu olho pra ele e sei que é pra mim. Porque eu não me sinto representada por nenhuma outra marca de cosmético natural. — Era exatamente isso que eu queria, Rê! Estou tão feliz! Mais uma vez muito obrigada!!!”
The brand launched with this identity, and the proof came back through the founder: a customer recognizing herself in the product before reading a single word. That's the job of an identity — and representation wasn't a talking point in the brief, it was the whole point of the design.
USE Àwúre has since closed — the founder couldn't keep the operation running alongside life and the difficulty of hiring people to maintain the quality of handmade natural products. The work stands as a record of a brand that knew exactly who it was talking to.