Vivantis

That phonetic coincidence became the starting point for everything Stockholm-based creative agency SNASK built when they took on the rebrand of one of Europe’s largest beauty e-commerce platforms, specialising in the Eastern European market. The wordmark has been crafted to emphasise exactly how the name reads when spoken aloud, splitting the letters to lean into that double meaning.

It’s a rather clever piece of verbal design, but the deeper challenge for the project was structural. Vivantis had built a successful commerce operation across Eastern Europe, yet the brand itself carried no weight. Customers chose it for price and product availability, then moved on without a second thought. There was no loyalty, no emotional connection, no reason to come back beyond the next discount. SNASK’s brief was to change that, starting from strategy and tone of voice through to the full identity, campaign production and a flagship store concept.

The discovery process revealed a brand that had been looking in the wrong direction. “Their brand was more focused on pleasing millennials rather than trend-setting Gen Z,” Freddie Öst, Founder at SNASK, shares. “But the challenge ran even deeper as they never really created a lifestyle brand and were more focused on product and service rather than brand building. And that’s not how loyalty is built, as product and service is easy to copy.” Vivantis had all the commercial infrastructure but none of the personality. The rebrand needed to give customers something worth being loyal to.

SNASK’s answer arrived through a deceptively simple concept: ‘Hello Gorgeous.’ The idea positions Vivantis as a kind of best friend – the one who tells you the truth, hypes you up and never lets you leave the house second-guessing yourself. The phrase became the organising principle for the identity, informing everything from art direction to in-store signage. “The idea was quite simple, as many of their customers turned to them for not only product but also advice and support, and so focusing on making Vivantis their best friend became a natural choice,” notes Erik Kockum, Creative Director at SNASK. The communication concept was built to inject positivity, fun and encouragement into a brand that had previously operated on pure transaction.

The art direction makes this relationship tangible through a specific camera technique. By placing the camera inside the mirror, SNASK created imagery where Vivantis looks directly back at the viewer – your no-nonsense best friend catching your eye in the reflection. It’s a small directorial decision that anchors the entire visual tone. For the launch campaign, the agency produced both photography and film, building sets that extended the identity into three-dimensional space. “The art direction came naturally from the visual identity,” Kockum explains. “We built sets that harmonised and further pushed the identity. The no BS part was set in the soft light, but also the talent acting.” The result is campaign material where the confidence feels earned, carried by lighting and performance as much as by graphic design.

Typographically, the identity runs on PP Fragment through its Glare and Sans cuts. The former delivers expression and personality, whilst the latter handles legibility and everyday communication. “It’s a very expressive typeface when set in Glare and very modern and legible set in Sans,” Öst notes. “So it became the perfect typeface.” SNASK developed guidelines governing how the two cuts work across different contexts, creating a system that can shift tone without losing coherence.

Alongside the type, SNASK developed a suite of custom icons and expressive frames that carry significant weight across Vivantis’ channels. The frames grew directly from the icon style, sharing the same visual DNA and maintaining consistency across the system. They had to walk a specific line – playful enough to reinforce the brand’s personality but restrained enough to let content breathe.

The scope of the project extended beyond screens into physical retail. SNASK collaborated with Blink, the interior design agency on the project, to translate the identity into Vivantis’ flagship store. Iconography and typography became signs and wayfinding, and the shapes from the icons and expressive frames found their way into spatial design. Every screen within the store carries the identity in its content, creating continuity between the digital experience customers already knew and the physical one they were now walking through.

Five months after launch, Vivantis reported a 30% increase in sales. For a brand that previously competed solely on price and product range, that commercial shift suggests the identity is doing exactly what the brief demanded – giving customers a reason to choose Vivantis that goes beyond the next transaction.

All images © of their respective owners.
Content taken from Vivantis