SOJYU

Context

UDS needed to launch a wellness brand from nothing into a crowded category — one where products look calm but feel assembled: a nice logo on one side, an unrelated interior on the other, a web shop that throws it all away. The task wasn't to decorate an idea but to originate one strong enough to hold across every surface a customer touches — shelf, room, scent, and screen — and refined enough to carry a premium price.

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Approach

I decided the brand could not be assembled from parts, only originated from one idea — so before any logo or bottle, I fixed a single intention: 素 / 充, the bare self and its fulfilment. Every later choice became a test of one question — does this carry 素/充, or dilute it? That made scent, package, room, and screen answerable to the same standard, not to five separate tastes.

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Outcome

I built the brand from the ground up — first the idea (positioning, name, and the core philosophy of 素 / 充, the bare self and its fulfilment), then carried it without drift into every layer: a five-scent original aroma series with perfumer IZUMI KAN (Taikan, Michiru, Shin Kokyu, Hanayagi, Sosei); packaging and a sustainable-package system; product photography art-directed to a magazine standard; the spa's atmosphere and façade. Then I closed the loop myself — designing and building sojyu.life, a bilingual JP/EN store where kinetic Japanese type and quiet imagery turn the brand's stillness into an interface, and into sales.

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