So excited to share some behind the scenes of the latest branding project I worked on for a holistic health coach!

Back on September 22nd, I was at a daylong Autumn Equinox retreat down near Princeton, NJ. It was a beautiful sunny Sunday and a bunch of women—most meeting for the first time—gathered at a quaint retreat center amidst the falling leaves to do yoga, journal, eat delicious food, connect with nature and each other, and celebrate the change of the season. While most people adore autumn, I can’t help but mourn the end of my beloved summer, so this felt like the perfect way to attempt to embrace the change this time around.

I mention this because it’s where I met Kristin, the holistic health coach behind Inner Self. We got to chatting and she mentioned that her business was in need of some branding & design love, and vióla! A few short weeks later we were kicking off our project together. I love meeting clients this way, because I certainly didn’t go into the day expecting to “do business!”

Now for the design…

When Kristin & I kicked off her project, we started by outlining what I consider to be your brand’s “blueprint” – your brand strategy. In Kristin’s case, she had started her business in 2021 and seen a lot of transformation and success since then, so it was important that we looked at where she was now when it came to her:

• Mission & vision
• Core values
• Target audience
• Competition
• Goals
• (& more!)
  
  

This part of the process serves 2 important purposes:

• It helps ME to learn everything there is to know about her business, so that I can outline a strategy and visual branding system that will resonate with her audience and stand out from the crowd,
• And it helps HER to regain clarity on many aspects of her business so that she can make decisions that align with her goals, whether it’s choosing a new service to offer or deciding to market in a new way
  
  

The Brand Strategy is a 30+ page PDF with lots of nitty gritty information, but at the end of it we have some pieces that are of particular importance for the next stage, the visual branding stage. These include:

1. Brand positioning statement: Inner Self offers holistic health coaching to women & moms. You stand apart through your passion for going beyond just a meal plan, and really helping your clients to become the best version of themselves. You seek to provide health coaching services to your clients that stand apart from the rest. You promise that every client will receive coaching that’s personalized to them, helping them to identify their current obstacles and goals, build healthy habits and find food freedom, and foster self love, trust, and growth.
   
   
2. Audience: Women & moms living in the northeast suburbs who are struggling to accept themselves where they are, and are ready to see their worth.
   
   
3. Brand vibes: Warm, supportive, compassionate, safe, bold, classic, grounded, mature, clean
   
   

And here’s how the visual branding came together:

For Inner Self’s logo, we went with a clean & classic all caps serif font with a custom lowercase e. Since Kristin really values providing personalized care to each of her clients, I loved that these e’s brought some unique customization into the wordmark.

For the logo’s icon, I hand drew an abstract mark that suggested inner self with the little heart in the middle. They also reference palm leaves, which holds personal meaning for Kristin.

Kristin’s has used the color grapefruit (along with actual grapefruits, in her brand photography!) since the beginning, and this is something she wanted to keep. It was fun to work this into the new identity while also bringing in some grounding and calming greens and neutrals.

For the headline, subhead, and CTA font, I stuck with the same font used in the logo which is a great way to create cohesion between the logo & font system. And then for the body copy I chose a legible, classic sans serif. I love how this font system feels supportive yet classic.

These are arguably my favorite part! Kristin & I came up with a list of themes that she comes back to a lot — nutrition, movement, journaling, communication, stress management, & more — and in turn created illustrations that are fun, custom, organic and handdrawn by yours truly. Illustrations are the perfect way to add a bit more personality to your website, social posts, and more!

Overall, it was such a joy to meet Kristin on that beautiful September day and be able to help her take the next step in growing her health coaching business. Below is a mockup of her website’s homepage to see how it all comes together (swooon!). Let me know what you think!