Soothing Zone, human-pet coexistence brand

Industry: E-commerce

Duration: 1 months

Role: Brand and Packaging Designer

Deliverable: Brand Guide | Packaging Design

Be closer to everything you love, in everyday moments.

Smoothing Zone is a lifestyle brand concept rooted in the idea of human-pet coexistence.
The project explores how branding and visual identity can communicate trust, emotional safety, and quiet companionship

Smoothing Zone translates that lived experience into a brand system that celebrates patience, shared presence, and the simple goal of “living together.”

Problem

Urban pet owners lives in high-density cities often experience:

Emotional exhaustion from fast-paced, efficiency-driven lifestyles
Visual overload from excessive information and stimulation
A lack of lifestyle brands that feel quietly trustworthy rather than overly commercial or sentimental

At the same time, many pet-related brands lean heavily toward either:

Highly commercial pet supply aesthetics, or
Overly cute, character-driven visuals that don’t align with modern interior or lifestyle preferences

The challenge:
How might a brand visually express trust-building, calm, and coexistence without noise, guilt, or over-design?

Brand Intent

Smoothing Zone was designed around three core beliefs:

Coexistence over control
Living together means adjusting, observing, and respecting boundaries—on both sides.
The value of slow relationship-building
Trust is built through time, repetition, and consistency, not instant results.
A shared goal: to live on
Beyond comfort or aesthetics, coexistence is about commitment and continuity.

Business Goals

Establish a credible lifestyle brand grounded in emotional authenticity
Create a brand system that feels ready for collaboration, funding, or platform support
Deliver a launch-ready visual identity within one month

User Research & Insights

Research focused on potential users in Taiwan, with insights strongly aligned with broader East Asian urban aesthetics.

Key findings:

After returning home from busy, information-heavy cities, users prioritize rest, visual calm, and emotional decompression
Strong aesthetic influence from Japanese and Korean media, advertising, and lifestyle brands
Visual preferences include:
- Neutral or solid color palettes
- Clean lines and geometric forms
- Minimalist compositions
- Soft, restrained “cuteness” through subtle pet-related motifs rather than overt illustrations

Insight:
Users are not looking for more stimulation, they are looking for a visual environment that slows them down.

Visual Strategy

The visual system for Smoothing Zone was designed to feel:

Calm, stable, and breathable
Emotionally warm but visually restrained
Contemporary, minimal, and interior-friendly

Design Principles

Reduction over decoration: every element must earn its place
Soft geometry: rounded or balanced forms to signal safety
Negative space as comfort: silence is part of the design
Subtle pet presence: animals are implied, not cartooned

Brand Identity System

Color Palette

Neutral base tones (beige, soft sage, muted earth tones)
Low-contrast combinations to reduce visual tension

Typography

Clean, modern sans-serif typefaces
Balanced proportions and generous spacing to enhance readability and calm

Graphic Elements

Simple geometric shapes
Repetitive, rhythm-based layouts reflecting daily coexistence
Optional pet-inspired abstractions (ears, tails, silhouettes) expressed minimally

Tone of Voice