Dakotomy — A branding studio seeking to standardize brand through process and education.

All you need is less

A brand identity, brand anthem video, ad campaign, website, and more to express, "All you need is less."

MEET GNTL

Sydney Dake, co-founder and product visionary, and Dexter Dake co-founder and Chief Creative Officer at Dakotomy, unite forces to create a radically minimalistic approach to beauty — meet Gntl.

THE CHALLENGE

The beauty industry has worked incredibly hard to convince you that you need a different cleanser, moisturizer, and treatment for every time of day, body part, and season. Why? Because more products, and more SKUs, equal more profits. This is common in almost every subset of beauty, but consumers are wising up to the idea that more is not more. More is wasteful. More is mindless. More is expensive.
Gntl has a thesis: "The future of sustainability is fewer products."
Challenging the industry norm of numerous single-purpose products, Gntl offers highly effective multi-purpose formulas designed to replace 5+ products in your routine. This impact reduces clutter in your shower and waste in our oceans.After working with 4 manufacturers and exceeding 37 batches to create the perfect formula, Dexter and Sydney then hyper-focused on Gntl's brand foundation using Dakotomy's principles and approach.

How do you marry these concepts and put them in a 16 ounce package? The Dakotomy team decided to create a strategy, brand identity, website, and packaging that would capture consumers’ aesthetic interest and inspire them to support sustainability through their skincare.

OUR WORK

In contrast to the more is more narrative, the Dakotomy team was compelled by the line, "All you need is less." While not a radically new concept, the brand idea would be authentic and captivating as an evergreen campaign — even better, it wasn't trademarked.

Using Dakotomy's guiding philosophy and approach: "Every decision is a brand decision," the Dakotomy team built a strategy and identity that could be leveraged to scale and express the brand authentically. To present the campaign, Gnlt took a risk by investing in a brand anthem video far earlier than traditional brands would.

In complete partnership, Dexter, Sydney, and Dakotomy joined forces with LR Creative to build a brand, brand anthem video, website, ad campaign, and more, in which the two founders describe the process as euphoric and unearthly. "We wanted to chase the emotion we knew everyday consumers felt toward perfection in advertising. We gave the direction to cast and highlight everyday moments and spaces as opposed to perfect unattainable lifestyles." — Dexter & Sydney Dake

On February 20th, 2023, Gntl launched the brand and campaign, seeing immediate success, having been scooped up by WWD, Beauty Independent, AOL, Yahoo! News, and more.

Will Gntl ever have more than one SKU? Stay tuned. The brand is innovating other single-use products into multi-use products, and there is more on the horizon. Learn more at GntlSkin.com

Credits

Client
Gntl
Services
Brand IdentityBrand GuidelinesBrand Essence & Character
Creative Direction
Sydney Dake
Art Direction
Dexter DakeAntonio Stojceski
Web Engineer
Ash DurhamRachel Lucas
Partnerships
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