Conjuring up the theme for this line offered me some distinct directions. Do I want ethereal candles? Something gothic and bold? Natural, organic forms? The candle “competition” in this store mainly references pentagrams or Celtic themes. So I started playing around with ethereal vibes for something mystical and almost delicate. When ethereal became too intertwined with the more mysterious and magical aspects of intention candles, I turned to nature for inspiration. I needed something that evoked autumn leaves or a gentle stream. 

The Enchantments and Oddities shop nearby has aquamarine stones in a bowl made from a tree trunk, so I use the rich turquoise color of the stones as one of my logo colors. I also chose umber to symbolize trees and falling leaves. With the colors selected, I focused on an earthy logo. What better way to represent the beauty of nature than with a logo resembling the tree of life? The brand name had to be simple and organic: in my head, I crossed “earthy” with “barren.” Barren wasn’t necessarily the vibe I wanted, but I liked the sound of “earthen.” Earthen felt huskier, warm, and signaled an “of the earth” meaning.

Now, to brainstorm intentions: wisdom, healing, money, power? The most popular intention candles are “money draw” or “prosperity,” but some candles had some creative names like “bitch be gone” banishing candles. This line calls for the basics, so I used healing, harmony, intuition, manifesting a miracle, love, and protection.

Of course, after I planned out my intentions, I had to coordinate which herbs or essential oils would be most prominent for each candle. I took the basic shape and layout of a cosmetics tube label from Canva and created a label based on natural forms. With the individual intentions, the illustrations got more creative, but I wanted to keep them simple. Every competition candle cautioned against lighting the candles before removing the label and leaving burning candles unattended, so I followed suit.

To promote this new candle line, I created a brochure. Again, I kept the simplistic goals in mind while creating the layout. I considered highlighting each candle’s characteristics, but that felt too detailed and crowded. Instead, I focused on the main message: “inspired by nature.” Without an actual product, I can’t easily photograph the different candles. Instead, I used Artboard Studio to create candle mockups for the brochure. (The site is finicky, but free to use.)

When I finished the brochures, I went back to Artboard Studio to create these brochure mockups. Voila! Now, I might consider making a candle line.