Overview
Complete brand for a luxury candle company, translating Taiwanese temple rituals into contemporary product design. Brand strategy, identity, typography, and packaging for temple collections, as well as an e-commerce website.
Discipline
Brand identity · Design system · Web design · Art direction · Packing design
Client
Vivawang International
Location
Taiwan (global & Taiwan markets)
Date
2020–2021
Team
CEO · Product designer · Marketing manager
Role and scope
Lead brand designer. Complete brand system including positioning, identity, packaging specifications, and digital presence. Collaborated on cultural research and temple partnerships.
The crowded luxury candle market is dominated by Western minimalism. We needed authentic diferentiation. The core positioning draws from the Taiwanese temple ritual of lighting incense and candles. The challenge was communicating this ritual to luxury consumers without requiring cultural education. The solution was restraint. We captured the sensory experience of warmth, silence, and transformation rather than relying on symbols.
The problem
Art direction
Temple culture becomes luxury product. Each candle collection partners with actual temples: Golden Tiger Temple, Baishatun Matsu. Traditional temple colors (red, gold, deep blue) modernized through proportion and material refinement. Packaging echoes temple architectural details through foil stamping and embossing. Typography balanced like temple calligraphy: refined but warm. The visual system captures temple ritual without copying temple decoration.
Color palette
Built around the visual temperature of flame. Warm light against neutral surfaces. Each colour corresponds to a sensory state: ignition, glow, and calm
#194567
#EBEEE8
Typography
A custom-refined geometric sans chosen for clarity and balance. It holds both technical precision and warmth. Sharp enough for foil embossing and soft enough for print and digital use.
Caudex Regular
Aa 123
Caudex Italic
Aa 123
Candle-form W favicon and logo mark, refined serif wordmark, with the tagline “The Scents of Inner Peace.”
01
Identity system
Two collections:
Golden Tiger Temple (金虎爺) and Baishatun Matsu (白沙屯媽祖.)
Each draws from specific temple partnerships. Balances cultural authenticity with luxury execution. Traditional colors modernized through proportion and material refinement. Foil depth, emboss height, and matte/gloss balance were tested extensively.
02
Packaging system
The layout follows a strict grid. Whitespace creates rhythm. Interactions are restrained: slow fades and controlled transitions. Photography emphasizes candlelight as the primary light source. Product pages organize information clearly without e-commerce clutter.
03
E-commerce website
Challenges
The main challenge was cultural sensitivity. Temple partnerships required respecting religious context while creating a viable luxury brand through ongoing collaboration with community leaders. Production complexity from specialty packaging and small runs increased costs while maintaining quality. Market positioning demanded a careful balance between sacred and commercial, preserving authenticity without appropriation or exclusion.
Insights
Luxury brand design requires equal attention to positioning and production execution. Working with cultural content required deep respect and constant validation. Building a brand from a cultural foundation created sustainable differentiation.