LEO MILANO
A black-and-red VOLC box burning on dark lava rock, flames rising out of it.

Design · Branding

VOLC

Украшения из вулканических пород

Identity and packaging for a volcanic-stone jewellery brand

VOLC is a jewellery brand made from Kamchatka's volcanic rock: obsidian, basalt, stones left in their natural shape. Every capsule collection belongs to one volcano. I built the identity around that idea of cooled fire, then the posters, outdoor ads and packaging, where each box carries a map of its volcano and the date it last erupted.

Year
2024–2025
Role
Brand concept, identity, lettering, print and outdoor, 3D packaging
Tools
Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Blender, Adobe InDesign

So the identity is about cooled fire: black stone, and an orange glow coming from inside it.

Brief

Jewellery made from the volcanic rock of Kamchatka, obsidian and basalt, in its natural shape. The pieces come out in small capsule collections, and each one is dedicated to a single volcano.

The people I designed for are 18 to 45 and live in big cities in Russia and abroad. They follow fashion, art and ecology, collect designer jewellery and care about where things come from. What they want from a brand: something rare, something honest about its material, something made by nature rather than by a factory.

The brand sells in its own stores and online, with delivery across Russia and abroad.

The Russian word ЛАВА set in a sharp black serif on an orange panel shown in slight perspective.
VOLC stacked in two lines, VO over LC, in orange serif letters on a black panel shown in slight perspective.

Idea

AVGVST, Kintsugi and Fjord all sell rarity and meaning. What none of them has is a place. VOLC is tied to Kamchatka and its volcanoes, which gives every piece a geography and a story, and the capsule collections make each piece rarer still.

So the identity is about cooled fire: black stone, and an orange glow coming from inside it. A sharp, high-contrast serif for the wordmark, and orange used as light, never as decoration.

The wordmark VOLC. carved into grey stone, glowing red-orange from inside like molten rock.
Three early posters side by side: A, serif Volc. with a glowing hand; B, a red line-art pendant on light grey with radiating text; C, an obsidian earring render above a pixel-style V•LC wordmark.

Process

I started in three directions at once. A sharp serif VOLC. with hands that glow like lava. A red line-art version, where the stone is drawn as a contour and the brand text radiates around it. And a pixel, blob-like V•LC on glossy obsidian renders.

The serif direction went forward after a review with my tutor. Looking back, the line-art version had something too; it just never got the chance to develop. From there I drew the lettering, built the posters and carriers, and then moved into Blender for the packaging.

Packaging

I kept the standard form of a jewellery box and changed what it says. A small glass window in the lid stands for the crater, where the stone came from. The texture of the box tells you which collection you are holding. Inside, an insert card carries the piece's number in its capsule collection, a contour map of the volcano, its coordinates and the date it last erupted.

The first insert is for Avachinsky (Авачинская сопка): last eruption, 5 October 2001. I modelled and lit everything in Blender.

An open VOLC box with a lava-stone bracelet inside, lit by low raking light on dark wood.
Exploded 3D render of a lava-textured jewellery box: the lid with a round window, a tray holding a black bead bracelet, and the base, floating above a dark wooden floor.
Black insert card lying on dark rock, with orange contour lines of a volcano and a short text about Avachinsky volcano.
Black shipping box on an orange background with the orange serif slogan «От вулкана до дома».
Black poster: a grey hand with long dark nails, two glowing orange rings on the fingers, the serif wordmark VOLC. above and the words «Новые поступления» below.
Black poster: a grey ear with an orange glow and a jagged orange earring, VOLC. bottom left, small orange body text bottom right.

Result

A full brand world for a stone that used to be fire: wordmark and lettering, posters, a brochure, outdoor ads, a box system with five textures, insert cards that give each piece its volcano and a shipping box.

The VOLC hand poster in a lightbox hanging under the steel roof of a railway station.
A black VOLC shopping bag with a red volcano print, standing on dark rock.
A folded black and orange VOLC brochure with a glowing hand image, lying on grey fabric next to white faux fur.
A dark exhibition hall: «Музей застывших пород» and the VOLC wordmark in orange on the wall, a figure walking past a glowing red lava shape.
A roadside billboard at night in the rain: «Авачинский свет», a burning box on lava.

Credits

  • Mockups: stock templates
  • Research slides: competitor product photos belong to AVGVST, Kintsugi Jewelry and Fjord; audience portraits are reference images
  • Hand and ear in the posters: photographs of a friend
  • Stone, lava and fire materials in Blender: partly third-party (BlenderKit)

HSE Art and Design School, BA Communication Design