Traced
- Naming
- Brand
- Copywriting
- UX/UI design
- Shopify
Standard tests give you a snapshot. Traced gives you a timeline. The at-home hair analysis test maps your body's exposure to 15 essential nutrients and toxic elements across a 30-day window – making it the first consumer test to show not just what may be present, but when patterns changed.
Most people will never know the impact their environment has on their body – not because the evidence isn't there, but because no one has found a way to read it. Hair grows roughly one centimetre a month, storing a record of everything the body has processed. LinusBio, a Mount Sinai-founded research laboratory, spent years turning that science into something actionable. Traced was the result.
The challenge
Bringing Traced to market meant building a brand from scratch in a crowded health and wellness space. The brief had to work for two very different people – the biohacker who already speaks the language, and the parent who just wants to know their family is safe. Regulatory constraints shaped what could and couldn't be said at every touchpoint, all against a tight timeline and a broad scope.
Our approach
The science is what makes Traced unique, so we leaned into it rather than softening it. Strategy, identity, copy, art direction, and development were all shaped together rather than handed off in stages, with the Traced team involved throughout. Every touchpoint from the packaging to the PDP was built to tell the same story.
Naming
The name wrote itself
Finding a name that could speak to a biohacker and a parent in equal measure isn't easy. Traced earns it. A trace is something left behind – a mark, a piece of evidence, a record. It's also lab shorthand: the smallest measurable amount of a metal in a sample, before a reading becomes a result. The name activates everywhere: in headlines, in copy, in conversation. Forensic without being cold, scientific without being clinical. Exactly where it needed to land.
TOV
Science in plain language
Complex science. Human language. Strict regulatory constraints. The brief had a lot pulling in different directions, and the voice we built sits comfortably in the middle – precise enough to earn trust, warm enough to feel like a conversation. The person who's already done the research, already asked the hard questions, and just wants a straight answer.
Brand
Time made visible
The identity was built to feel like something uncovered rather than created – always in motion, never static. References ranged from long-exposure photography and geological strata to kinetic sculpture, all feeding into a visual language that feels grounded and real. A three-typeface system handles everything from big editorial moments to data labels, with a semi-mono reserved for anything that needs to feel measured or timestamped. Even the logomark earns its place: a temporal chart, with vertical bars, nodes, and a curve tracing the arc of exposure through time.
Colour
Nature, not neutrals
Most health brands land at one of two extremes – sterile white or wellness green. The Traced palette sits somewhere else entirely. Drawn from water, moss, clay, and earth, the colours are muted and nature-derived, swapping pure white for warm beige and off-whites that feel lived-in rather than laboratory-clean. It looks like something you'd keep on your bathroom shelf, not something you'd find in a clinic.
Photography
Life caught mid-movement
Photography is the emotional engine of the brand. Long-exposure imagery and intimate portraits capture the visible traces of life in motion – not in curated environments, but in the ordinary places people actually move through: public transport, city streets, parks, staircases. The everyday is intentional. Every frame holds a tension between movement and stillness that mirrors exactly what Traced does: make time visible.
UX/UI
Where the concept clicks
The temporal mapping chart is where the product's core idea clicks into place – the moment it stops being a concept and becomes something you can actually see. Every page was built around one simple idea: information without a clear next step leaves people stuck, not empowered. So proof comes first. The timeline, the percentile result, the single strand – all of it up front, giving users something real to hold before they're asked to do anything.
Build
Seamlessly connected behind the scenes
Traced runs on Shopify, with a build shaped by everything a DTC health testing product demands – secure data handling, results delivery, and regulatory compliance baked in from the start. A bespoke app built on Gadget.dev manages customer data, subscriptions, and repeat testing, while a custom backend keeps the LIMS, fulfilment provider, and Shopify talking to each other seamlessly. For the user, it's just a standard Shopify login. No separate app, no extra steps.
"Series Eight is a great partner for a fast-moving startup like LinusBio. No ask is too much, and no deadline is too close. Mario has built one of the most talented teams I’ve ever worked with, across both creative and technical aspects of the work.
Traced is the third project we’ve done with Series Eight, but by far the most elaborate and operationally complex. We built an end-to-end e-commerce experience, spanning everything from the online shopping experience to kit and report design, all within a very tight timeline. The team took our briefs and turned them into a commercial reality, quickly and seamlessly."
VP Marketing and Commercial Ops, LinusBio
Team
- Art Director
- Rita Bastos
- Copywriter
- Bobbie Hiscock
- Lead Developer
- Alistair Shepherd
- Developer
- Daniele De Pietri
- Developer
- Fi Bennett
- Project Manager
- Cogan Broll
- UX/UI Designers
- Nick Pilling/Biel Morro