Ethan Spetnagel

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Slug Soap


Slug Soap is a design experiment-turned-small business focused on reimagining what bar soap can be. You can buy Slug Soap at select locations in San Francisco or online at slugsoap.net.

slugsoap.net animation


Contents

1. About
2. Products
3. Brand Identity
4. Packaging
5. Website Design
6. Motion Design








About

During the pandemic, amid widespread hygiene product shortages, a friend and I wondered — in our hyper-designed world where every product competes for attention, why had bar soap been left behind? While most everyday objects had been reimagined as statement pieces (see images below for examples), soap remained surprisingly stagnant — creative in scent and color, but stuck in its traditional shape.

Years later, this question evolved into experimentation. Today, Slug Soap creates eco-friendly bars with unconventional forms, moving beyond the constraints of conventional rectangular soap.

Visit slugsoap.net to see all products.

(or keep scrolling)



lamp from Seletti
watering can from Eeero Aarnio










Products

Each bar of Slug Soap approaches form differently — from functional studies in ergonomics to explorations in visual depth and transparency. The collection displays how subtle changes in geometry, layering, and sculptural elements can transform a utilitarian object while maintaining its essential purpose. 




 

 

try moving the pictures around!





Mystery Soap marked the beginning of Slug Soap's design exploration. Initially inspired by insect lollipops and resin paperweights, these transparent bars contain objects suspended within them  —  transforming ordinary items into art. The design also incorporates raised typography featuring 'slug' in block letters — an element meant to emphasize soap's inherently tactile nature.












1. Ron Weasley Lego 
2. 1oz silver bullion 
3. Hermoine Granger Lego 
4. bag of dirt 
5. cigarette 
6. mini Bic lighter 
7. soda flavored chapstick 
8. Harry Potter Lego 
9. AAA batteries 
10. money clip holding one dollar 11. Tomagatchi 
12. 1oz silver bullion 
13. Nintendo basketball game 
14. pencil sharpener 
15. Casio watch 
16. padlock 
17. other Harry Potter Lego character 
18. Nintendo horse game 
19. Circuit board necklace 
20. Nintendo Pokemon game 
21. loose change 
22. Ginny Weasley Lego 
23. 1oz silver bullion 
24. Dumbledore Lego





The Cheese Soap emerged from a study in functional form. Its distinctive wedge shape offers a bold visual departure from traditional soap bars while incorporating practical design elements: the natural holes and indentations found in cheese provide intuitive grip points, addressing a key oversight in conventional oval soap design.







                       the Slug Soap logo  








                                                                 grip points






              

The Shell Soap explores how organic forms can reshape the traditional soap bar. Taking inspiration from the logarithmic spiral of a snail shell, it coils around a central axis, creating natural grip points and varying surface areas that make the bar both functional and visually dynamic. Each color variation has a complementary scent.
shell soap in Blender










pink shell               scent: bergamot


green shell               scent: eucalyptus


blue shell               
scent: petrichor










@slug_soap on Instagram






Flower Soap translates traditional floral fragrances into physical form. The six-petaled design provides multiple grip points while its structure maintains shape integrity throughout use. Each color comes with matching flower scent:
Green — Ylang-ylang
Blue — Chamomile
Pink — Cherry Blossom
Purple — Lavender













try rearranging the flowers











Chamomile Flower Soap, 2024








Star Soap is glow-in-the-dark and star-shaped. The star has five distinct points for gripping while its center maintains enough surface area for practical use.
move the stars around!    











glow-in-the-dark Star Soap






















The Grip Soap’s geometric shape features angled ridges that provide optimal grip while the broad surfaces maintain practical functionality. The front face showcases a embossed Slug Soap logo, adding both branding and texture. The gray version is made from remnants from pieces from the other soap bars, creating a zero-waste option while maintaining the same functional design.















  















 The embossed snail logo is used in Slug Soap’s packaging, too!




Slug Merch
t-shirts






                           
 All t-shirts were screenprinted by hand




waterbottles







stickers













Brand Identity

Slug Soap's visual identity draws inspiration from pixelated graphics and cross-stitch patterns, blending digital and handmade aesthetics. This approach appears across the brand's website, packaging, and merchandise, creating a cohesive system that adapts to different formats.



                                                     
Slug Soap snail logo              







Type

Slug Soap uses Monument Grotesk Mono and Eucrosia UPC Italic to create contrast in brand communications. Monument, a monospaced sans-serif, handles informational text like product descriptions and website content — its uniform spacing and clear letterforms prioritize readability. Eucrosia UPC Italic adds character through its fluid strokes, reserved for headers and emphasis text to create visual interest against Monument's structured forms.
Aa      


Eucrosia UPC Italic  

Aa  

Monument Grotesk Mono  








Color Scheme


Dark #362339
Light #E8A3C7



Dark #322C17
Light # FAFCD7



Dark #0D202C
Light #C5E7F7

Dark #1B1B1B
Light # D8D8D8



Dark #2B321A
Light #D1DC2B
The color palette maintains visual consistency while accommodating a diverse product range. Built around dual-tone variations of purple, blue, and green, these colors create a foundation that complements the soap collection's vibrant palette. This approach carries through all brand applications — from packaging  and digital assets to promotional materials. The color scheme ensures clarity across all touchpoints while allowing the products themselves to stand out.






Logo Design




Primary 




Alternate 




The Slug Soap logo centers on a pixelated snail mark, featuring a distinct spiral shell pattern that reflects the brand's digital-meets-handmade aesthetic. While the company name references the initial experimental phase of soap making (when the slippery texture reminded me of slug trails), the snail was chosen as a more approachable character for the visual identity. This intentional contrast between name and symbol adds a layer of intrigue to the brand story. The pixelated spiral has become a recognizable element that ties the visual system together.

Slug Soap riso print

Slug Soap's visual identity extends beyond the primary snail mark to include a collection of supporting characters and illustrations. These loose sketches, shown in the print above, create a visual language that adds dimension to the brand identity.











1. About
2. Products
3. Brand Identity
4. Packaging
5. Website Design
6. Motion Design











Packaging



For the star, grip, flower, and shell soaps, I created packaging that captures the brand’s personality and also enhances the overall product experience. My goal was designing a versatile container that could accommodate the majority of my soap shapes in a cohesive and memorable way.

The exterior of the packagaing is a minimal off-white box featuring an embossed snail logo on the front face and the word 'slug' embossed on the bottom face. These elements create a tactile experience that mirrors the textural quality of the soap itself, engaging users before they see the soap.

Opening the box reveals an energetic interior featuring Slug Soap's cast of characters rendered in a two-tone dark and light green palette. This contrast between the understated exterior and dynamic interior creates an intentional reveal during the unboxing experience.

The packaging uses 18pt 100% post-consumer waste paperboard, chosen for its superior embossing capabilities and environmental sustainability. The natural off-white tone of the recycled stock adds subtle depth to the exterior embossing, while the interior features custom green soy-based inks in two tones for the illustrated elements. The box uses a tabbed lock-bottom construction for stability and clean edges, ensuring both structural integrity and a premium unboxing experience.














                                                         
                                                                                 
Slug Soap's first packages were kraft boxes











Website Design
For Slug Soap's e-commerce platform, I focused on distilling the shopping experience down to its essential elements. The wireframe below shows my initial approach to creating a streamlined interface that puts products front and center while maintaining easy access to crucial site features.





This layout contains split architecture, with a scrollable product feed on the left and essential brand elements anchored on the right. Each product card follows a consistent layout pattern — featuring a prominent product image, detailed description, and an accessible 'Add to Cart' button — separated by subtle dividers to maintain clear visual hierarchy and improve scanability.

The fixed-position framework ensures that vital touchpoints like company information, navigation features, and social media links remain accessible regardless of how far users scroll through the product catalog.

This minimalist approach reduces cognitive load while maintaining all essential e-commerce functionality. By positioning the product feed as the primary scrolling element, the design creates an intuitive shopping experience that allows users to focus on product discovery while keeping navigation and purchasing actions readily available. 
















On mobile devices, the fixed elements transition from the right side to the top of the interface, maintaining the same streamlined functionality while optimizing for smaller screens








Motion Design



The collection below showcases animations for Slug Soap created in Blender, After Effects, and P5.js. 

ASCII Shell Soap Animation








Star Soap Instagram Ad
Flower Soap Ad
Castro Stroll Animations











Star Soap Animations











Flower Soap Animation









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