Yoga teacher & founder of Miss Vinyasa, Ariana Hornkohl, is as lovely, true, and hard-working as they come. Practicing yoga was instrumental in aiding several important transitions in Ariana's life, and now she's on a mission to help others explore their mind and body by deepening their yoga practice.
When Ariana approached us to help launch her new website and YouTube channel I was immediately transported back to 2019 when I was practicing yoga every day in a room filled with 50 sweaty bodies. It's difficult to imagine practicing in that setting today, which is one of many reasons Ariana's business model resonates with me.
Ariana makes herself available to her students in a variety of ways; you can watch a collection of free yoga videos on her website or subscribe to her YouTube channel to gain access to a vast array of teachings. You can book a private one-on-one session with Ariana either in person or online, or you can visit her at one of three locations on Maui. Wherever you're at mentally or physically, Ariana is there to help guide your yoga journey.
Project Goals
Our goals for the Miss Vinyasa launch were to create a complete visual identity to reflect the open, thoughtful, and transformative nature of Ariana's practice. We hoped to conjure feelings of peace and strength while reflecting the surrounding Hawaiian flora, sacred geometry, Ariana's long flowing hair, and other visual elements that make Miss Vinyasa's practice truly unique. Creating visual continuity across the Miss Vinyasa website, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram would help to establish the brand and aid in the growth of her online global community.
Setting the Mood
We initially presented Ariana with three mood boards and eventually landed on the final board seen to the right.
We utilized a peaceful, mature, and feminine color palette for this project to inspire feelings of balance, strength, and wisdom. The purples represent Ariana (also her favorite color) and the tan colors represent the beach.
The sweeping Adore You script font used in the word mark (below) reminds us of writing in the sand, and the spirited Josefin slab font creates balance and increases legibility.
It was important to Ariana that Miss Vinyasa's pose be meditative and introspective vs a more intense balancing posture.
"My mission is not only to teach you yogasana (yoga poses) but to give you a deeper insight into the true essence of yoga." - Ariana H.
The palm leaves above Miss Vinyasa evoke a sense of place while also acting as a shelter created by the beach landscape. The flower of life to her left and the moon to her right represent the interconnectedness of our physical and spiritual selves to the earth and beyond.
Supporting Elements
Once we landed on the final logo mark and wordmark for Miss Vinyasa we got to work creating supporting graphics which included: business cards, avatars & cover images for social media channels, highlight-reel images, and editable Instagram post templates. These supporting elements come with our complete Visual Identity package and can be tailored to fit your business needs. I love when clients opt for the complete Visual Identity package because it gives us a great opportunity to create a scalable series of logos from the get-go. As you can see from Ariana's Brand Guidelines below we created a logo mark (logo with the seated woman) and wordmark (word-focused logo), and a badge logo (circular image with the flower of life & moon). Creating a logo that can be reduced down to a small badge is increasingly important in a world where our interactions with businesses and brands largely take place on our phones or other smaller devices. I like to think of this type of reduction as the "sound bite" of your logo. Brand recognition is key to growth, and my goal with any Visual Identity project is to create memorability with as little information as possible.
Squarespace (7.1) Audit Highlights
The freedom to say yes to challenges outside your scope without the approval from a higher-up is honestly what small business dreams are made of. Helping Ariana to fine-tune her Squarespace site was one of those moments for us. Ariana put in a ton of leg work to build a beautiful & functional website for Miss Vinyasa using Squarespace 7.1, so rather than convincing her to scrap it and join the Wix community, we got to work learning about Squarespace. And girl are we glad we did! Since taking on this project we've had several clients request Squarespace site maintenance, and just like that ... we now offer Squarespace Auditing.
Here are some highlights from our audit of Miss Vinyasa's Squarespace site:
Improved site hierarchy
Improved navigation
Color story, typography, & logo implementation
How to Practice with Ariana
If you're ready to begin your yoga journey or deepen your existing practice, we encourage you to visit Ariana's website. You can explore Miss Vinyasa's free yoga options here, subscribe to her YouTube channel here, or better yet, follow this link to book a private session with Ariana on your next trip to Maui.
For a limited time, you can enjoy a whopping 22% off any private yoga session with Ariana (in person or virtual) with code LAUNCH22. Promo expires 3/1/22, so get your session booked today!