ConceptLuxury fragrance

Silvae

Quiet, cinematic and tactile. The site moves like a walk into a forest at dusk.

The brief

Silvae is a fragrance house we invented for this concept. It makes one scent, built around one forest, and sells it in a heavy glass bottle with a cap cut from stone.

The brief we set ourselves: launch that single scent online in a way that feels as considered as the bottle. With only one product, every page has to earn its place.

The real problem is that a website cannot carry a smell. Image, pace and words have to do that work, so the site is slow where it should linger and plain wherever someone is ready to buy.

Project
Concept by Neyroline
Category
Luxury fragrance
Focus
  • Art direction
  • Product storytelling
  • Motion
  • E-commerce
About this concept
Silvae is a fictional brand. Its identity, content and website were created by Neyroline to show the kind of work we do. It is not client work.

The homepage

One scent needs one message. The homepage is a single photograph, one line and one way in; everything else waits until it is asked for.
Silvae
A heavy glass Silvae perfume bottle with a rough stone cap, standing on wet slate in front of a misty conifer forest.

Cedar, after rain.

One scent, made from a single forest at dusk.

Discover the Scent
A live, working preview. The links and the bag respond, and on a narrow screen the layout recomposes for a phone.

The scent, unfolding

A fragrance changes on the skin over hours. Here that change is paced by scroll: the bottle holds still and the notes arrive one at a time, in the order you would notice them.
Close-up of the Silvae bottle: the rough stone cap, etched lettering and beads of mist on the glass.

  1. Bergamot, black pepper

    Top notes, the first minutes

    The edge of the forest. Cold air, bright and a little sharp, like the first breath after rain.

  2. Cedar, fir balsam

    Heart notes, the first hours

    Under the canopy. Resin and damp bark, the green of the needles, and the quiet.

  3. Vetiver, oakmoss, smoke

    Base notes, into the evening

    Dusk. Wet stone, roots and moss, and a fire somewhere far off. This is what stays on the skin.

A live demonstration in the Silvae identity. With reduced motion turned on, all three layers are simply there.

Product page

The bottle first, two sizes and nothing else to choose. The bag says plainly what happened, and the price never hides.
Silvae
Close-up of the Silvae bottle: the rough stone cap, etched lettering and beads of mist on the glass.

Silvae

Eau de parfum

One forest at dusk, after rain. Bergamot and black pepper at the edge of the trees, cedar and fir balsam under the canopy, then vetiver, oakmoss and a trace of smoke on the skin.

Size

Choose a size and add it to the bag: the count updates in the Silvae navigation here, on the homepage above and on the phone below.

On a phone

The same components, at the size most people will first meet them.
Silvae
A heavy glass Silvae perfume bottle with a rough stone cap, standing on wet slate in front of a misty conifer forest.

Cedar, after rain.

One scent, made from a single forest at dusk.

Discover the Scent
Close-up of the Silvae bottle: the rough stone cap, etched lettering and beads of mist on the glass.

Silvae

Eau de parfum

One forest at dusk, after rain. Bergamot and black pepper at the edge of the trees, cedar and fir balsam under the canopy, then vetiver, oakmoss and a trace of smoke on the skin.

Size

Scroll inside the phone. Its bag is the same one as above.

  • Navigation in thumb reach

    On a phone the navigation moves to the bottom of the screen, so the scent and the bag are always one thumb away.

  • Image first

    The bottle comes before any words. On a small screen the photograph has to do the persuading, so it comes first and takes most of the view.

  • Text that holds up

    Reading text stays at 16 px or larger. The light serif is kept for headlines, where its fine strokes hold up; everything small is set in a plain sans.

Design decisions

  • Typography

    Cormorant Garamond at display sizes, in its light weight, so headlines feel engraved rather than printed. The wordmark is set in spaced capitals because that is how it is etched on the glass. Small interface text uses a plain sans, so it stays readable at any size.

    Cedar, after rain.

    Silvae

    Cormorant Garamond, light and regular. Small text in a plain sans.

  • Colour

    Taken from the photographs: the green-black of the forest at dusk, a cool bone for text and lichen as the one accent, kept for focus, hover and the note you are reading. Every pairing used for text passes WCAG AA.

    • Forest #0f1d17Ground
    • Pine #1b2e25Raised surfaces
    • Bone #e3e6ddText
    • Smoke #8f9a92Secondary text
    • Lichen #c2cfa0The one accent

  • Motion

    Slow and tied to scroll. Notes arrive as you reach them, the image moves a little closer as the scent settles, and the one film on the page has a pause control. Nothing bounces, and with reduced motion turned on everything is simply there.

    The ease behind every entrance: quick to leave, slow to settle.
    Headlines
    1.3 s, unmasked one line at a time
    Images
    2.6 s settle, then a slow drift with scroll
    Notes
    Paced by scroll, a line drawn as you read
    Film
    5 s loop, with a pause control
    Reduced motion
    Static, every note visible

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