Brand: Thirdbase
Scope: Branding, typography, packaging, strategy
Year: 2024
Location: Gurgaon, HR
How do you introduce a brand that sells intimate massagers to an audience that cannot even utter the word 'sex' without at least 10 other people expressing shock, disgust and anger? That exactly was the challenge at hand.
Main logo unit
If I were to describe Thirdbase in the fewest words, it would be ‘passionate, inclusive, sexy, mysterious and old’. One may wonder why I use the words ‘inclusive’ and ‘mysterious’ to describe the same brand. And more curiously, why would I use the word ‘old’ for a brand that’s only just started?
First 2 products of Thirdbase, Noah (left) & Eve (right)
In our hands was a topic so taboo, that the only way to make it digestible was by making it appear as something that’s always been there. A subject that nobody dared speak of, but everybody knew about. It was mysterious. You could never be sure if what you knew about it was correct.
If by now you couldn’t figure out what exactly Thirdbase as a brand does, their tagline will sum it up so poetically, you’ll wonder why it sounds so novel, yet so familiar- ‘Because intimacy shouldn’t be intimidating’.
Ashmita, one of the two co-founders, had narrowed us down to a direction that she believed was the best. She was determined that Thirdbase had to be delicate, luxurious and overwhelmingly feminine at its very core. My aesthetic had always been maximal, strong, sharp, rough and edgy. And here was this person with this (at the time) crazy idea that made the choice of brand name ironic! We had countless meetings and discussions. Many of us in the team reasoned how the name ‘Thirdbase’ had its origin in sports and teenage culture. Something that wasn’t traditionally ‘luxurious’ or ‘feminine’. It had to be strong, it had to be approachable and it had to be dynamic. I wouldn’t say the feedback wasn’t taken, it was. We did cut down on the delicate, feminine parts. But the woman had a vision that the rest of us eventually realized.
Wordmarks, icons, motifs, monograms, we explored it all. Each more beautiful than the previous. But none made the cut. There was always something missing. I think I now understand why. Every brand has a logo mark or an icon. Every brand has a motif. Every brand has a monogram if not a logo mark. I’m exaggerating, of course. However, the point is- it was all so modern, so generic. The designs were unique, but the concept of having a certain icon with a certain font, for instance, seemed so common. It helped that we took a couple steps back at this point, 9 decades back to be precise.
The team researched about typography, calligraphy, packaging and brands from the 30’s and the 40’s. Some of us even took a detour to the Biblical times. That’s how we named our first two products! The findings were helpful. Brands from that era were expressive, ornate and yet simple in their messaging. Detailed typography, art nouveau-style illustrations, floral patterns- it was just what we wanted. It was all so feminine, vintage, luxurious and mysterious. Yes, the inclusivity was missing. Unsurprisingly, those years aren’t exactly noted for progressive schools of thought. Back to 2023, inclusivity was still something we struggled to incorporate in the visual branding. How could we have done it? Have pride colors in our palette? It is tokenistic, opportunistic and trivializes real struggles that some of us face daily. We didn’t want Thirdbase to be ‘that one brand that puts up a rainbow profile picture during June because that’s where their activism begins and ends’. We wanted to serve a real purpose. We decided it was better instead to make the brand inclusive through its voice, its messaging, its products and its workplace policies.
Typography was a major focus area. I believe typeforms are powerful. They can tell a story, a language’s history and even its people’s history. For instance, there’s a reason why Devenagari letterforms tend to be blocky with sharp edges while languages like Malayalam have curved, circular letterforms. Devanagari used to be carved on rocks and stones. You’d need much more than simple stone-age tools to carve smooth circles on them. Malayalam was etched on banana leaves, something not exactly known to be as strong as a rock. One sharp line drawn on the leaf and it tears apart. You had to be careful and write delicately on them. Both languages carry their ancestries in the curves and blocks of their letters.
Photographic style and social media aesthetic
Hand shots are a major part of Thirdbase's design language
At no point during the project was it explicitly decided that we would settle for no less than a wordmark. But the direction of our progress made it inevitable. Custom typography was the way forward. Time constraints did not allow us to design the type ourselves. So we chose to utilize a beautiful, elegant typeface called The Seasons designed by Elena Genova from My Creative Land as the base. It had a contemporary feel with sharp, high-contrast strokes, smooth curves and distinct serifs. It evoked a sense of sophistication and refinement that was perfect for editorial designs and luxury products.
We reduced the tracking and brought the versatile letters together, merging the first two letters into a single ligature. We simplified the serifs and added tiny slabs. A major modification was the upper serifs of the letters ‘i’, ‘r’, ‘d’ and ‘b’. They all point towards the left. The letter ‘r’ has a spur that is unique to the rest of the wordmark. The letters ‘d’ and ‘b’ are the visual centerweights of the entire block and are modified to be a mirror of each other, except their upper serifs. The last letter ‘e’ has its crossbar modified for a more stylized look. The end result was a stunning block of letters that, as a whole, appeared straight out of a modern book about nostalgic pleasures. I believe we struck the right balance between vintage and contemporary.
Primary font
Secondary font
Social media design system
Brand colour guide
We had more than a million colours available to us to choose from for our palette, yet we chose to keep the brand monochromatic. Colours, I believe, are vocal. Each shade is a personification of an adjective, a trait, a personality. We did steer heavily towards shades of purple and sometimes even oranges. But we had to remind ourselves that we were building a brand that was mysterious. Mysteries unravel with time, they don’t reveal every detail in the first encounter. Thirdbase was to be the same. Therefore, we decided to let go of colours. The result was a brand that spoke in monochromes. We did choose a particular shade of gray-black instead of pure black and a slightly warm-tinted white instead of pure white to give the brand a personality. Because we didn’t want the palette to be mistaken for a bland, tasteless look. Two more subdued shades of orange and green were added later on to make the palette more suitable for use on the website and marketing materials.
Letterhead (A4)
The scheduled launch of the brand was fast approaching. We were still left with two of the most important parts of the branding- packaging and strategy. Strategy was something that was being developed simultaneously as we were trial-and-error-ing on other aspects. Packaging had to be given priority at this point.
All the intricate, layered, textured packaging ideas had to be discarded. This was a major blow. We were put on a strict timeline and budget as far as packaging went. Say what you will, but this pressure did bring out the best of us in this phase. Most luxurious, high end brands have packaging that is minimal. The expensiveness of the brand is communicated through the choice of the materials used instead. We couldn’t do this anymore due to budget constraints. We had to think of something else. This is when we decided to take a tour to the 30’s.
Packaging artwork
Our illustrations team researched patterns and paintings from the era and in a couple weeks, created a seamless pattern made of flowers and leaves in the art-nouveau style with hidden female figures in various poses as easter eggs. It was beautiful, it was stunning, it was luxurious, it was mysterious and it was perfect. The elements from the pattern were dissected and used to create an ornate vintage label illustration full of vintage typography, visual motifs, hidden french quotes and some flirtatious texts! The box, however, was simple. It was white with a paper-like texture. The cover had the vintage label illustration while the bottom had the other important details. We successfully reduced the cost of packaging while maintaining our desired aesthetic, albeit with some unexpected changes.
Packaging boxes for Eve (left) & Noah (right)
Social media story templates
Social media design templates
More social media design templates
Icon pack
All of this took a better part of a year. It’s said that great ideas take time. And I say I believe it now if I didn’t earlier. We built a brand that was new, but felt familiar. We gave it a story that sounded mysterious, yet warm. We made it speak a language that an old lover speaks. We gave it colours so unremarkable that they grab attention.
Thirdbase as a brand has a lot more to be done. It has a lot more places to go and a lot more messages to convey. It doesn’t exactly have a lot of successful role models in the form of other brands to follow. The industry is still niche. The stigma is still there. The taboo still persists. But Thirdbase is taking it all on, one huge mountain of challenge at a time. After all, intimacy shouldn’t be intimidating.
