Koralli
Branding · Art Direction · Entrepreneurship
Story time, everybody.
It all begins with an idea and three friends who are excited to make things happen. This is the story of a small handmade soap business that me and my high school friends decided to launch.
& just like that, a new adventure begins
One day, me and my friends were daydreaming of someday traveling to Greece and go to Mykonos, Santorini and more islands. During that time, I was obsessed with learning a bit of greek, and so we did a brainstorming session and pictured a coral reef and sea related elements and names, when BAAAAM; we wondered what was the word in Greek for “coral” popped and so we google translated we loved it! It sounded so delicate and sophisticated— And so Koralli (κοράλλι) was born.
I was attending a Creative Entrepreneurship Course at that time, and so I proposed to my associates if we could develop and launch Koralli while I was completing this course, since I needed to come up with a project or business idea. We could learn techniques, strategies and more from my mentors and apply all these valuable knowledge into it. And so we did! We developed the business model, ran a market research, marketing and sales strategies, product prototyping IRL — basically Design Thinking all over the place. Until we got a line of beautiful MVP soaps.
Our value proposition relied on becoming a brand that handcrafts soaps for all skin types and concerns that involved the best organic and cruelty free ingredients for a healthy skin. We also aimed for eco-friendlyness (is that even a word?) and sustainability.
My roles were so many at different times; from graphic designer to social media manager, from content creator to sales and finally: business administration.
When in doubt, we reached out to our mentors for guidance, pitched our way in the GSEA, and got an offer from a couple of investors.
We had a ball. Even when lockdown (2020) hit, we came to the idea of selling anti-bacterial pocketable gel with assorted scents. Most of our clients bought them by bulk.
Sadly, all good things come to an end and we decided to close our small business during our 4th year mainly because our career paths were growing apart and forward. I personally had a blast and learned so much about building a business, a brand. Which led me to seriously consider studying an MBA. I feel so thankful for this project 💜
Our instagram still exists! You can check more of the content we created here.
