Cleancult’s new branding heroes the refillable

Robot Food has worked with the plastic-reducing cleaning brand to bring its refill and reuse philosophy to the masses

All of Cleancult’s products are packaged in cartons more usually associated with milk or juice, with the idea that they’re transferred into pourable, pumpable and sprayable bottles that can be used to do the cleaning, and then refilled again.

Robot Food was briefed to design branding that would counter any confusion around this, and make the refill/reuse process clear from the get-go. The Leeds-based studio created a series of central pack icons that hero each product’s ‘refillable glass partner’.

Another challenge was to lean into the ‘cult’ part of the brand name whilst avoiding the more challenging associations of the word. The team utilised a range of graphic devices such as symbols and a decorative logotype, and balanced this out with an overall feeling of playfulness.

The logomark in question is composed of shapely lettering, paired with a star-shaped glint that serves as “the finishing touch, the gleam in the clean”. Other graphic elements used in the branding, such as sunshine-esque rays, emphasise Cleancult’s “positive, aspirational elements”. Robot Food added in sans serif font Brandon Grotesque for body copy, and semi-serif font Nazare for titles.

The studio was equally playful with the brand’s tone of voice, expressing the more serious sustainable messaging through slightly tongue-in-cheek copy. Finally, the simple yet striking blue and white colour palette evokes a feeling of freshness and communicates the efficacy, with bold secondary colours used to represent different scents.

“With cleaning products, one way or another it can feel like you have to make a sacrifice – between conventional and natural, eco-friendly and tough on germs, lemony freshness versus dried out hands,” says Jess Cook, client director at Robot Food. “We wanted to show Cleancult as the full solution – something we can trust without fearing we’ve made the wrong choice for ourselves, or the planet.”

robot-food.com