Barred From LA
Every bar, its own character.
A wanted-poster campaign for small-batch soap — one bar cut in half to show its marbled character, on sun-faded yellow with evidence tags.
Campaign direction · Hero + story design · Rollout plan
Every bar, its own character.
Why this line, for this business.
The business
Barred From LA makes small-batch, handmade soaps in Los Angeles, each bar poured and cut by hand so no two batches look quite the same.
The goal
Turn that variation from a footnote into the campaign: make ‘every bar is different’ the reason to buy rather than something to apologise for.
The central idea
A wanted poster. One bar, cut open, treated like evidence: halftone ink, a hard shadow, numbered tags around it. The line names the idea and the type does the shouting. Every batch is a different suspect.
Cut it open.
The character of a handmade bar is inside, so the hero is a cross-section. No real product is depicted; the marbling is an abstract study.
Newspaper ink.
Halftone dots, letterpress-pressed black type and a faded yellow stock make it feel printed, not rendered.
Evidence, not decoration.
Numbered tags and scrawls frame the bar like a case file. The story version stacks the type and crops in on the cut.
Printed, loud, witty.
A poster system: one yellow stock, one black condensed face, one hero object printed in halftone with a hard shadow. Each new batch is a new cross-section and a new tag number; everything else stays fixed.
Brand name full-width at the top, headline left-aligned in black, CTA in a black box. Yellow stock, halftone hero.
The bar. Each batch gets its own cut and marbling, and its own evidence number.
Landscape sets the headline beside the bar. Vertical stacks headline above and CTA below.
Two formats.
One identity.
The landscape hero and the vertical story were designed together so the campaign reads the same on a website banner and on a phone. This is the completed, deliverable artwork; everything in section 05 builds on it.
Words that match
the pictures.
Starter copy in the campaign’s voice — a headline, a supporting line, three social captions and an email subject. Written to show the tone; the business would refine every line.
Every bar, its own character.
Supporting lineSmall-batch soap, made by hand in Los Angeles. No two batches alike, and that’s the point.
Call to actionMeet the bars
- Line them up. Not one of them matches. Every bar, its own character.
- Hand-poured, hand-cut, slightly unpredictable. Meet this week’s bars.
- Pick the one that looks like your week. Every bar, its own character.
Meet the bars: this batch has personality
Completed assets.
Proposed extensions.
The two completed pieces are the complimentary concept. The rest is how the idea could grow if the business wants to take it further — each would be scoped separately and built from approved brand assets.
Campaign hero · 3:2
Delivered as the landscape design on the board above.
Vertical story · 9:16
Instagram story and Reels cover with the stacked type.
Batch series
One poster per batch, photographed with the real cut bar in the same halftone treatment.
Market and pop-up signage
The wanted-poster format as a table banner and price tags.
Short motion
The bar splits on the beat and the tags land; six seconds, 9:16.
Variation is the product. The poster treats it like a case.
Project scope & production notes
What this study covers
Campaign idea
Visual direction
Hero + vertical story design
Sample copy and rollout plan
Created as a complimentary, self-initiated concept and shared with the business as a proposal.
What it is not
No actual Barred From LA soaps, packaging or premises are shown; the bars are abstract graphic forms generated under art direction.
No commission, client approval or measured results exist for this work. Motion, print and email items in the rollout are proposals only.
Concept, art direction, copy, type and colour direction: Isaac Hernandez. Artwork generated with AI models under his direction.
Natural Amor
A little care, every day.