2.7 KiB
2.7 KiB
aesop — Aesop Skincare
- School: Editorial / Minimalist
- Vibe: Apothecary refinement, sage and ink, serif copy as conversation
- Best for: Premium consumer goods (skincare, candles, eyewear), restaurants with literary aspirations, hospitality
- Touchstone: aesop.com, Aesop store windows, the brown amber bottle
Palette
- Ground:
#E8E4D9(warm chamois) — sometimes#F2EFE5 - Ink:
#1B1B1B(true near-black for copy) - Sage muted:
#7A8470 - Amber bottle accent:
#7A4623(used very sparingly, e.g., a single rule or seal mark) - Cream surface:
#F0EDE4
Typography
- Display & body: a single transitional serif at every size — Suisse Works, Lyon Text, or GT Sectra (weight 400, italic available). Aesop pairs serif for body copy with a single sans for UI labels (Söhne or Helvetica Now).
- Body size: 16–18px; line-height ~1.65
- Labels in small caps (10–11px, letter-spaced 0.12em)
Spacing: 8 / 16 / 24 / 40 / 72 / 120
Radius: 0 throughout, including form fields. Aesop is square-edged.
Shadow: none.
Motion: subtle fades, slow drawer slide-ins (~450ms ease-out). Never spring-bounce.
Signature moves
- Body copy reads like product writing in a literary magazine — long, well-cadenced sentences, justified text, no marketing punchiness
- Product is photographed on a warm chamois surface with a single sage prop (leaf, marble dish, linen) and a long shadow
- Small-caps section labels (
INGREDIENTS/RITUAL) above each block - All-text navigation in the masthead, letter-spaced
- Asymmetric layouts: image left, generous right-margin block of copy; never centered-everything
Avoid
- Bold weights anywhere — Aesop is all regular and italic
- Color other than sage / amber / ink — no blues, no purples, no UI-blue accents
- Pop-up modals (Aesop's UI politely waits)
- Lifestyle stock photography of smiling models — props and product only
AI prompt seed
Amber-glass apothecary bottle on warm chamois #E8E4D9 textured paper, single linen napkin and dried sage sprig, raking afternoon window light, deep soft shadow at lower right, 4:5, editorial product photography, color grading warm with slight green cast.
Don't use when
- The product is software or digital-first — Aesop's tactile object photography defines half the recipe; you can't fake it with CSS
- The audience expects price-comparison utility — Aesop never shows pricing prominently
- The voice needs to be funny or casual — Aesop is sincere and slow
Same school — Editorial / Minimalist:
apple-hig·muji-kenya-hara·dieter-rams-braun·monocle-magazine
Browse all 25 recipes: INDEX.md