Brand Identity Design for Solace Wellness Studio

Solace is a boutique wellness studio based in Melbourne, Australia, offering yoga, breathwork, and sound healing sessions. The founder wanted a visual identity that felt calm and grounded without falling into the overused "zen garden" aesthetic that dominates the wellness space.

This is a spec project. Solace is a fictional studio I created to demonstrate my brand identity process from brief to final deliverables.

The concept behind Solace centers on three qualities: stillness, warmth, and intention. The studio caters to working professionals in their late 20s to early 40s who want a wellness space that feels elevated, not esoteric. Think clean interiors, warm lighting, linen textures. The brand needed to reflect that same sensibility.

Key requirements I set for the project:

A logo system that works on signage, app icons, and embroidered towels

A palette that feels warm and organic without reading as "spa clip art"

Typography that balances softness with structure

A brand guidelines document a junior designer could follow without guessing

I started with 40+ pencil sketches exploring lettermarks, wordmarks, and abstract symbols. The final direction is a custom wordmark with a subtle arc on the "S" that echoes a slow exhale. Alongside the primary wordmark, I built a circular monogram for small-format use (app icon, wax seals, embroidery) and a horizontal lockup for web headers and email signatures.

Every version was tested at 16px favicon size and at 2-meter signage scale to make sure nothing broke.

The palette pulls from raw clay, dried eucalyptus, and warm sandstone. Four colors total:

Kiln (warm terracotta) — primary brand color, used for headlines and key accents

Fog (soft grey-beige) — background and breathing room

Sage (muted green) — secondary accent for icons and highlights

Charcoal (near-black) — body text and contrast

I deliberately avoided pure white and pure black. Every color has a slight warmth to it, which keeps the palette cohesive across screen and print.

Headlines: A modified serif with slightly rounded terminals. It reads as editorial and calm without feeling clinical.

Body text: A geometric sans-serif with generous letter-spacing. Optimized for readability on mobile screens and printed schedules.

The pairing works because the serif carries personality while the sans-serif stays out of the way. I documented size scales, line heights, and spacing rules for both web and print in the guidelines.

Designed for 350gsm cotton stock with a soft-touch matte finish. The front carries only the wordmark and a single tagline: "Breathe with intention." The back holds contact details in a clean left-aligned layout with the monogram watermarked at 8% opacity.

I mocked it up in Photoshop with realistic paper texture and shadow to show how the card feels in hand, not just on screen.

The final guidelines document runs 14 pages and covers:

Logo usage rules, minimum sizes, and clear space requirements

Color specifications in HEX, RGB, CMYK, and Pantone

Typography hierarchy with size scales for web and print

Photography direction and image treatment style

Social media template system for Instagram posts and stories

A clear "don't do this" section with common misuse examples

The goal was to make a document that a freelance designer, print shop, or social media manager could pick up and execute the brand correctly without a phone call.

Wrote a fictional creative brief with target audience, brand values, and competitor references

Built a mood board from architecture, textile, and interior photography

Sketched 40+ logo concepts on paper, narrowed to 3 directions

Refined the final direction in Adobe Illustrator across all lockup variations

Developed the color system and typography pairing in Figma

Designed the business card layout and print-ready mockups in Photoshop

Compiled the full brand guidelines document in Figma, exported as PDF

Total time invested: approximately 30 hours across 6 days.