A new Romanian supplement came to us with a product, a first batch on the way and a logo that led with "vegan". Twelve weeks later it had a strategy, a brand, a label, a store and a launch calendar, all built around the two things buyers actually ask about: the taste and the dose.
DHA-Core is a Romanian Omega-3 made from microalgae oil instead of fish. One of its two founders is a doctor. The plan is to sell online first and through pharmacies after.
When they called us at the end of June, they had a product, a first batch due within months and a sage logo that said "premium vegan". The ask was everything at once: identity, label, a store that takes orders and a launch plan.
On a food supplement, every line of that also has to survive a regulator. So you cannot write your way around a weak claim. The claim has to be true and the design has to make it obvious.
From the brief on 29 June to the live store on 22 September. The counts below are the work itself, not a sales result. Those come after launch.
Before any design, we mapped the market: search demand, every algae Omega-3 already on Romanian shelves and what each one costs. The founders brought their own consumer survey. Together they overruled four instincts.
Buyers were not shopping for vegan. They wanted no fish taste and a dose high enough to matter. So the homepage opens with "600 mg DHA a day. No fish, no fish taste." and vegan moved down the list.
More than 25 algae-based Omega-3s were already on sale in Romania, so "the first" was off the table on day one. The position became the most concentrated dose, explained more plainly than anything else on the shelf.
People said a doctor's recommendation would make them try a supplement. Almost nobody named an influencer. So the co-founder who is a doctor sits in the middle of the homepage, and social is there to explain, not to sell.
The cheap fish oils were never the competition. We anchored against premium imports instead, and every price on the site sits next to what it costs you per day.
33 rough marks across five directions: the molecule, the softgel, the idea of a core, the three authorised benefits and hybrids. All of them in one colour, so an idea had to work before the colour could help it.
Three finalists became three complete brand systems. The founders picked the one that reads as science you can trust. Then we redrew its centre until it said exactly what the product is.
The final mark. A microalgae frond with the steps of the DHA molecule rising out of it, inside a drop of oil. Symbol and wordmark are one piece and never split.
Four versions, no more. The primary first, the rest for dark backgrounds and one-colour print.
Petrol and algae aqua take the brand out of the green "natural" aisle. Amber is the colour of the capsule, so it is rationed: the key number, the button, the seal.
Archivo for everything, at full weight for doses. A monospace for the data. The numbers are the heroes.
Three lab textures: a node grid, a specimen frame and a data bar. Used quietly, never all three on one surface.
On the front, the dose does the selling: 300 mg of DHA, set larger than the logo, with the EPA in amber underneath. We tried four front layouts in five palettes before this one.
Then the slow part. Every line on the back was checked against the supplier's technical sheet and certificate of analysis, in two rounds, until the oil content, the capsule shell, the warnings and the three authorised claims matched the paperwork exactly.
The same system beyond the bottle: the social avatar, the supply seal and the brand card.
WordPress and WooCommerce, designed and built by us, live on dha-core.com since 22 September. Each section answers one question a sceptical buyer brings to a supplement page.
The hero film is tied to the scroll: the bottle stands, the cap pops, the bottle tips and the capsules roll out. The page only moves on once the film has played.
On a phone it runs as a light loop, and anyone who prefers reduced motion gets a still image instead.
Fish do not make Omega-3. They get it from algae. The usual chain has four steps, this one skips the fish. It is the line people repeated back to the founders in interviews, so it got a section of its own.
Most Omega-3 labels advertise milligrams of oil. This section teaches you to look for milligrams of DHA instead, then shows the full nutrition table. Useful even if you never buy, which is why it works when you do.
Then it does the maths per day: one bottle or three, the better deal marked, and a preorder you can pay for on delivery. Honest about the price, so the price stops being the objection.
The research said trust comes from medicine, so the co-founder who is a doctor is not tucked into an About page. He is on the homepage, with the two facts that matter: an ingredient authorised in the EU and a patented process that keeps the oil fresh.
Preorders on WooCommerce with cash on delivery first, free Sameday delivery and SmartBill invoicing. Behind that: the online withdrawal form and consumer-protection pages the law asks for, the store in Romanian and English, consent-aware analytics and structured data for 26 real questions.
Same argument, same order, rebuilt for a thumb. The sections stack, the numbers stay big.
A launch calendar for Instagram and TikTok: three posts a week, reels and carousels, one theme per week. Every hook comes from the research, and nothing goes out that the label could not back up.
Covers from the launch calendar. The brand speaks Romanian, so the posts do too.
Why you need DHA. Where it comes from. Purity and the number. Value and the offer. In that order, so the price arrives after the reason.
The three authorised claims in their exact wording, no competitor named, no "first" or "only". Written down once, so nobody has to guess on a deadline.
The best hook in the calendar is a line from a consumer interview, quoted as it was said. Testimonials on the site carry a note that the person tried samples before launch.
The first batch ships in November. Preorders, what each one costs to win and what the doctor-led content does on social go on this page once we have them. Not before.
Bring the product. We bring the research, the brand, the label and the store, and we read the regulation before we write the headline.
