Brand Identity + Packaging Designer for US supplements brand (Ritual / Seed / Cymbiotika-tier work)

The problem The US supplements aisle has three good-looking brands and a thousand identical ones. Ritual owns clinical-pretty minimalism. Seed owns sculptural, science-meets-poetic. Cymbiotika owns gold-foiled luxury maximalism. Everyone else is wearing a costume of one of those three. We want the fourth point on the map: clinical-rigorous and radically transparent. A brand that looks more like a research instrument than a beauty product. Clear bottles where you actually see the capsules. Ingredient lists, doses, and batch numbers treated as the design itself, not buried in fine print. The aesthetic of a clinical trial document, made beautiful. Our taste anchors are The Ordinary (ingredient-list-as-typography, honest pricing on the bottle, no marketing language anywhere), Thorne (pharma-grade clinical authority — the brand Mayo Clinic actually uses), and Athletic Greens (AG1) (premium clinical confidence treated like a research-grade instrument). What we don't want: soft colors, lifestyle photography on packaging, lowercase wellness-y serifs, leaves, kraft paper, or anything that signals "spa." We want the visual vocabulary of grotesk typography, periodic-table precision, clear materials, and data-as-design. The goal is to make Ritual look soft. About Root Labs We're a US-based wellness company building a portfolio of supplements and topicals. We sell direct on TikTok Shop (where we've grown fast in the last 12 months) and Amazon, with traction across hair, skin, and stress/sleep categories. This new brand will be the umbrella for our supplement line going forward — meaning whatever you design will be on tens of thousands of bottles within 6 months of shipping, and seen across our TikTok Shop storefront, Amazon listings, and creator-led video at scale. The founders are operators, not committees. We have taste. We move fast. We don't do focus groups. How we work One decision-maker, founder-direct. You'll be talking to the CEO and head of brand, no one else. No moodboards from us. We're hiring you because you have a point of view — show us yours. Two rounds of revisions per phase. Scope is locked, we don't death-spiral. Decisions in 48 hours. No "let me check with the team" loops. Paid on time, every time, invoices paid within 7 days. What's in it for you (beyond money) A physical product to point at. This goes to retail. We'll ship you the first production run so you can photograph it for your book. Real distribution. Your work will be on bottles in tens of thousands of customers' homes within 6 months, and seen in TikTok content reaching millions of viewers. Creative latitude. Pre-decided briefs are how mediocre work gets made. We hired you for your taste — we'll defend it. A long-term partner if there's chemistry. We have more brands coming. If this one ships and we love working together, we keep working together. The scope Phase 1 — Identity (3–4 weeks) 2–3 distinct directions explored in moodboard / concept form Logo system (primary, secondary, lockups) Typography system and color palette Voice / tone direction (one page is fine — we'll write the copy) Brand guidelines doc (PDF, 20–30 pages) Phase 2 — Packaging (3–6 weeks) Primary packaging design for 2–3 launch SKUs (bottle, label, secondary carton) Print-ready files prepared for our manufacturer (we'll loop you in with them directly) Who we're looking for You've shipped at least 2–3 CPG identities that actually went to market — supplements, beauty, food/bev, or adjacent You can show packaging work, not just digital brand decks You have a real point of view and the confidence to defend it You move fast and work direct — no 4-week kickoff phases, no 8-person Slack channels Bonus: you've worked with TikTok-native or DTC-first brands and understand thumbnail / scroll-stopping design How to apply We're not asking for a cover letter. We want to see your taste. Send us: Your portfolio — link to the 2–3 projects most relevant to this brief, with a one-sentence note on your role in each Your rate — fixed project quote or day rate Your availability — when you can start One paragraph — what you'd do differently from Ritual / Seed / Cymbiotika if you were designing in the supplements category today We reply to everyone we want to talk to within 5 business days. If we hire you, we move within 2 weeks. Root Labs — building wellness brands that don't look like everyone else's.