Illuminated Perfume

WEB DESIGN

A website redesign for a one-woman, plant-based perfumery, translating artisan craft, mythic inspiration, and sensory storytelling into a modern yet timeless digital experience.

CLIENT
Illuminated Perfume

INDUSTRY
Personal Care

STUDENT WORK

SCOPE
Web Design

Project Overview

Illuminated Perfume is a small, one-woman, plant-based perfumery founded by Roxane Villa. Roxane creates delicate, divinely inspired fragrances using pure plant botanicals, blending ancient traditions with a fine-art sensibility. Each perfume is crafted as both a sensory and artistic experience.

The Brand & Maker

Roxane’s work is deeply intentional — from formulation to presentation. Her perfumes draw inspiration from ancient Egypt, classical Greece, and Parisian perfumery, resulting in fragrances that feel ritualistic, poetic, and timeless.

Her physical products reflect this ethos:

  • Solid perfumes poured into finely engraved cases reminiscent of a bygone era

  • Samplers accompanied by aged, parchment-like cards, sealed with locally made beeswax

  • Illustrated note cards explaining each scent’s emotional and botanical composition

Each perfume is treated as a complete artistic expression, accompanied by original artwork to visually capture its mood and story.

Design Challenge

While Roxane’s brand was already well considered, her website did not fully carry the same depth, detail, or storytelling present in her perfumes and physical packaging.

The challenge was to design a website that:

  • Felt modern and refined, without losing its historical and mythic roots

  • Honored the artisanal, handmade nature of the brand

  • Elevated storytelling and emotional connection

  • Reflected the care and intention Roxane brings to every aspect of her work

Style Tiles

I began with a style tile to establish:

  • Color palette

  • Typography

  • Photo treatment

  • Button and link states

  • Overarching brand themes

This helped ground the design direction before moving into layout.

Digital Layouts

From there, I designed web and mobile layouts, focusing on clarity, hierarchy, and pacing — allowing space for imagery, story, and ritual rather than overwhelming the user with commerce-first design.

Solution

The final website redesign repurposed and refined the existing foundations of Roxane’s brand — her photography, artwork, and written storytelling — while restructuring the experience to better serve users.

Key decisions included:

  • Improving flow and navigation for browsing and discovery

  • Letting products feel like artifacts rather than items in a catalog

  • Highlighting story, mood, and craft alongside functionality

Visual inspiration was drawn in part from artisan retailers like Anthropologie, whose digital presence balances aesthetics, handmade quality, and storytelling — aligning closely with Illuminated Perfume’s values.

What I Learned

This project was completed for a Web Design course without a dedicated user research phase, and I became acutely aware of how much stronger and more strategic the work could be with real audience insights. I found myself wanting to spend more time understanding user needs, behaviors, and motivations.

At the same time, the constraint was instructive:

  • It pushed me to problem-solve creatively

  • It deepened my appreciation for research-driven design

  • It reinforced my enjoyment of building expressive, slightly unconventional interfaces

This project ultimately strengthened my desire to pair deep research and strategy with craft-driven, expressive design in future work.