Forest Smells and Branding

Forest Smells and Branding

Forest Perfume

Research Article on Forest Smell Compounds

On a previous project I had already started to explore the possibilities in recreating the smell of a typical forest, by purchasing and combining key aromatic compounds with something to disperse them, such as perfume alcohol.

The smell of wet earth after rain, in particular, has always interested me. Sometimes referred to as petrichor, the compound geosmin has been synthesised and is available for online purchase at pellwall.com, where I also bought the other components I have researched.

A paper by Antonelli et al. (2020) listed, from a sample, some typical forest compounds, according to their relative prevalence. I was able to source the following (listed by prevelance):

  • geosmin (wet earth after rain)
  • pinene alpha (pine trees or sap)
  • orange terpenes: contains limonene (lime peele, citrus fruit)
  • tagetes oil: contains e-beta-ocimene as a key component (generally floral)

I also sourced cut-grass smell, despite it not being prevalent it genenerally reminds humans of nature, so I decided I would experiment with adding some:

  • cis-3-hexanol (cut grass, cut vegetation)

Procurement Issues and Future Development

The geosmin I ordered for the initial project, and I was able to use this in my result for this FMP. However the lab were delayed in sending the rest of my ingredients, which are scheduled to arrive a few days after the deadline. I decided to go ahead with geosmin only, as it is the most forest-associated compound I researched. Further compounds I will add as they arrive, as potential development of the product.

I mixed 3ml of perfume alcohol with increments in numbers of droplets of geosmin. High accuracy digital scales were unavailable at the time, but given the simplicity of the ingredients list and the potency of geosmin, I dont think recreating the perfume will be difficult.

I decided, after 5,10,15 and 30 drops that 30 was the ideal number. Increasing numbers of drops will increase strength, but geosmin is notoriously powerful, and noticeable for a long time, so I limited the number to 30.

Ratio of Mixture

The final ratio is therefore

3ml PA: 30drops geosmin

Logo and Brand Name Design

I decided to unify my work for this project under a theoretical brand and company name, reinforced by the fact I had been offered purchases of a theoretical forest perfume by people who had access to the components.

Inspiration

My goal was to create a two-tone graphic and textual logo. Some initial research brought the following logos up:

Österreichische Bundesforste ÖBF (Büro X, 1997)

EPA (Chermayeff et al., 2017)

Man Walking In The Park Logo (Lucian, s.d.)

Nature and Forest Symbols (Sjöberg, 2020)

Forest Bathing Trail (Ptak, 2020)

I also wanted to reference the dinoflagellates which inspired the forest-human relationship angle my project took. This image from the Britannia entry for Dinoflagellates took my attention:

Image credit: Blickwinkel et al. (s.d.) via britannica.com (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica and Petruzzello, 2017)


My first idea revolved around the idea of a dinoflagellate as a home source of light, and the ubiquitous symbol for LEDs, and combining the two.

Image credit: IEEE Standard American National Standard Canadian Standard Graphic Symbols for Electrical and Electronics Diagrams (Including Reference Designation Letters) (1993) via en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light-emitting_diode(Wikipedia Contributors, 2019)

Logo Iterations

This shows a timeline of the logo’s different versions. I began by tracing roughly the form of the Britannica entry dinoflagellete, and drawing LED light arrows, placing the object in a circle. I went on, however, to ditch the electronic symbolism, instead putting rings of dashes around the organism to represent the light emitted. The blue colour I chose was for resembling the 476nm (Wikipedia Contributors, 2020) peak they emit.

Brand Name Iterations

This document shows the different brand name pairings I went through. I eventually settled on my middle name in italics, using the google Noto (no-tofu) font for its simplicity and standard use across the web.

Style Guide

I then created a simple digital style guide to unify different elements of the brand and show off the colours, graphics and text.

Reference list

Antonelli, M., Donelli, D., Barbieri, G., Valussi, M., Maggini, V. and Firenzuoli, F. (2020) 'Forest Volatile Organic Compounds and Their Effects on Human Health: A State-of-the-Art Review' In: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 17 (18) p.6506.

Blickwinkel, McPHOTO and Bioquatic (s.d.) Dinophyte from the genus Ceratium (possibly C. tripos). At: https://images.blickwinkel.de/?16756386081222671803&EVENT=WEBSHOPSEARCH&SEARCHMODE=NEW&SEARCHTXT1=Dinoflagellaten (Accessed 20/05/2023).

Büro X (1997) Österreichische Bundesforste ÖBF. [Digital Artwork]

Chermayeff, Geismar and Havviv (2017) EPA. At: https://www.cghnyc.com/work/project/epa (Accessed 20/05/2023).

IEEE Standard American National Standard Canadian Standard Graphic Symbols for Electrical and Electronics Diagrams (Including Reference Designation Letters) (1993) In: IEEE Std 315-1975 (Reaffirmed 1993) pp.i–244. At: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/985670

Lucian (s.d.) Man Walking In The Park Logo. [Digital Artwork] At: https://scalebranding.com/product/164429/?wmc-currency=GBP (Accessed 20/05/2023).

Ptak, T. (2020) Forest Bathing Trail. [Digital Artwork] At: https://dribbble.com/shots/14786280-Forest-Bathing-Trail (Accessed 20/05/2023).

Sjöberg, R. (2020) Nature and Forest Symbols. [Digital Artwork] At: https://dribbble.com/shots/14175035-Nature-Forest-Symbols (Accessed 20/05/2023).

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica and Petruzzello, M. (2017) 'Dinoflagellate | organism | Britannica' definition. [online] In: Encyclopædia Britannica. At: https://www.britannica.com/science/dinoflagellate (Accessed 20/05/2023).

Wikipedia Contributors (2019) Light-emitting diode. At: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light-emittingdiode (Accessed 20/05/2023).

Wikipedia Contributors (2020) Dinoflagellate. At: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinoflagellate (Accessed 20/05/2023).

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