The Brief
Translate Lumana's existing brand strategy, mood boards, and logo sketches into a polished, cohesive visual identity ready for launch

• Create a timeless, abstract icon rooted in natural, wave-inspired imagery — avoiding trends and "on the nose" wellness clichés — that reflects Lumana's philosophy of interconnection and flow

• Finalize a natural colour palette anchored in natural and earthy tones, inspired by colours such as eucalyptus, clay, oat, linen, charcoal, and dusty rose.

• Ensure the brand feels inclusive and welcoming to all backgrounds, levels, and belief systems — distinct from the transformation-focused mainstream wellness aesthetic

  
  

The Challenge

Mel and Randy came to this project with real creative groundwork already in place — Mel had begun sketching rough logo ideas of her own before we started working together, exploring organic lines, curvatures, and swirls that felt true to Lumana's spirit. From there, I explored motifs where that same swirl language shows up in nature — tree rings, waves — as a way of expanding on that early direction.

The specific sketch that became the final mark was one they arrived at entirely on their own — a symbol that read as both a person furling inward and a heart, holding meaning that felt fitting for a brand built on rest, presence, and connection.

Once that sketch was set, the brief was clear: refine and digitize it faithfully, and continue build a visual language around it.

That clarity came with a real constraint. A hand-drawn sketch and a vectorized mark don't always translate the same way — on paper, the eye reads a sketch as a whole gesture, so small imbalances in line weight, angle, or spacing go unnoticed. In vector form, built around precision, those same imbalances can suddenly become visible. Staying faithful to the sketch while resolving that shift became the central design challenge.

The Approach

Early attempts at the translation didn't fully land. One version leaned into the softness of the inspiration but drifted from the sketch's original form. Another stayed strictly faithful to the shape but lost the natural variation that made it feel alive.

The resolution came from focusing on the relationship between thicker and thinner stroke widths within the mark itself — a juxtaposition already present in the original inspiration, just not yet fully realized in vector form. Ivy Presto Display, the wordmark's typeface, carries that same interplay of weight — bold, confident strokes paired with fine, delicate details — so bringing that same tension into the mark meant the symbol and wordmark could read as one cohesive visual language, rather than two separate decisions.

Every anchor point carried intention rooted in the brand itself: steady where the mark needed to feel grounded, softened where it needed to feel welcoming — the same warmth and quiet confidence at the center of Lumana's Caregiver archetype, expressed at the level of a single stroke.

Before finalizing anything, I brought forward this further refinement as an additional option — not a departure from the sketch, but a resolution of proportion and stroke weight that kept its meaning fully intact. Mel and Randy reviewed it alongside the more literal translation and chose this direction to move forward with.

Anatomy of the Mark

Every adjustment was intentional: the arch was exaggerated to mimic the original sketch's asymmetry, the right side explored thinner strokes to suggest movement — a nod to Lumana's practice being rooted in restorative movement — while other areas were thickened to preserve the bolder presence Mel and Randy wanted throughout.

The Result

The final identity carries Mel's original direction forward with clarity and cohesion — a mark and wordmark that function as one system, supported by a colour palette, typography, and brand guidelines + strategy built to carry Lumana's presence across every touchpoint.

What This Project Reinforced

Sometimes the most valuable design work isn't starting from a blank page — it's knowing exactly where to press and where to hold back within a clear creative vision already in motion, and having the strategic clarity to know why. This project was a reminder that thoughtful refinement is still design.