Varalee

InterClinical Wellness · Australian herbal supplements

Giving a practitioner-trusted brand its own voice on the retail shelf

A sub-brand strategy and TGA-compliant packaging that moved a brand trusted by practitioners into premium health-food retail, without losing the credibility that made it work.

A hand holding a sprig of artemisia above the InterClinical Wellness Artemisia Plus carton, beside a mortar and pestle

  • A new sub-brand

    InterClinical Wellness, built for upmarket health-food shoppers

  • 2 months

    From discovery to print-ready packaging

  • Built for a range

    A product colour system planned for the line to grow

The challenge
A brand respected by health practitioners wanted retail lines, but its packaging was built for the practitioner’s desk, not the shop shelf.
What I saw
Retail shoppers needed a different voice from practitioners. The answer wasn't to change the parent brand, but to give the retail line a brand of its own.
The result
InterClinical Wellness: a sub-brand with its own personas, logo and packaging, carrying the parent brand’s credibility to a new audience. Launched in Australian health-food retail in 2020. The final pack was refined with the client before going to market.

Services Brand discovery · Customer personas · Sub-brand strategy · Logo · Packaging

The situation

InterClinical Laboratories had built its name selling herbal supplements through health practitioners. The products were respected, and the people who recommended them knew exactly why. The company wanted new product lines for retail, but wasn’t sure which direction to take them.

On a practitioner’s desk, a clinical-looking box is reassuring. On a retail shelf, with nobody beside it to explain, it disappears among every other white supplement pack.

I worked with InterClinical Laboratories over 2 months, from discovery to print-ready packaging.

The strategy

I ran a brand discovery session with the team to set a long-term direction. The answer was a new sub-brand, InterClinical Wellness, aimed squarely at a new audience: upmarket retail customers in health-food shops. That kept the parent brand’s practitioner credibility intact while giving the retail line a voice its new customers would respond to.

Brand chart: InterClinical Laboratories above InterClinical Professional and, highlighted in teal, InterClinical Wellness
Two brands, one parent: InterClinical Wellness sits beside InterClinical Professional, under InterClinical Laboratories.
InterClinical Wellness brand direction sheets on a desk: logo, colours and type, and a mood board of herbal shop shelves
The brand direction, recreated for this case study from the original logo, colours and mood board.

The identity

  • Parent

    InterClinical Laboratories logo

  • Practitioner range

    InterClinical Professional logo

  • New retail sub-brand

    InterClinical Wellness logo
The leaf and flower from InterClinical Professional carried into the new mark, freed from the mortar and pestle, in a softer teal and a cleaner typeface. Familiar to people who knew the parent brand, approachable to those who didn’t.
InterClinical Wellness logo in full colour, reversed on charcoal and teal, and in single-colour versions
The logo in full colour, reversed and single-colour versions.

The packaging

Supplement packaging in Australia has to carry a lot: the AUST L number, indications, directions, ingredients and regulatory text. Most brands let those requirements take over the front of the pack, which is why so many of them look the same.

InterClinical Wellness Artemisia Plus carton: a botanical illustration, bold product name and a coral line at the base
My recommended design for Artemisia Plus: a botanical illustration of the plant does the emotional work, and a bold product name and a single coral line give the shelf something to recognise. The compliance information is all there, organised so it reads as care rather than clutter.
The side of the Artemisia Plus carton: a quote on the plant’s history, its many names and a QR code
On the side panel, the plant’s history and its many names, with a QR code.

Each future product gets its own line colour: coral for Artemisia Plus, with the next products planned in blue and orange, so the range reads as one family on the shelf while each product stays easy to find.

The Artemisia Plus carton laid flat: ingredients table, directions, indications, front panel and barcode
Laid flat, the carton shows how the ingredients, directions and indications are organised panel by panel.

What it shows

Regulation doesn't have to make a pack feel clinical. Treated as part of the design, the same constraints can make a product feel more trustworthy, which is exactly what a premium price needs.

This project was a Brand Build.

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