balance yoga barre
Brand & Visual Identity
Building a visual system that could scale with ambition
When I began working with Balance Yoga Barre in late summer 2023, they had something precious: a deeply loyal community who loved their classes and instructors. But the visual identity couldn't carry that energy beyond the studio walls. The logo felt homegrown, the brand materials were inconsistent, and there was no cohesive visual language that could work across the growing number of touchpoints a modern wellness brand requires.
The owner had expansion plans. BYB had already begun exploring multi-location growth, and the brand needed to evolve from "beloved neighborhood studio" to "scalable wellness company" without losing the warmth and approachability that made people fall in love with it in the first place.
Creating the Visual Anchor
We started with the logo itself. The goal was something that felt both established and energetic—welcoming but not exclusionary, premium but not pretentious. The solution: a circular mark in deep emerald and gold that borrowed visual authority from heritage fitness brands while the hand-drawn quality of the letterforms kept it approachable.
The color palette told its own story. That deep green signaled premium wellness, growth, natural energy. The gold added warmth and aspiration without feeling out of reach. Together, they created a foundation that could work across everything from Instagram posts to physical studio signage to retail merchandise across multiple locations.
Building the Visual Language
But a logo is just a mark until it becomes a system. We built comprehensive brand guidelines that established not just what the logo looked like, but how BYB communicated visually across every touchpoint. Typography that felt confident but not cold. Photography direction that captured real bodies doing real work, not Instagram-perfect poses. Graphic elements and patterns that could flex from digital to print without losing their impact.
One of the most valuable pieces became the custom illustration library I created specifically for BYB. These weren't stock graphics—they were hand-drawn figures capturing the actual movements and energy of barre, yoga, and strength training. The illustrations gave BYB a distinctive visual signature that could live on social media, in email campaigns, on challenge posters, across studio walls. They were warm, accessible, and unmistakably theirs.
The positioning strategy was just as critical as the visual work. BYB needed to own a specific space in the market: community-driven premium wellness. Not the cheapest option, not the fanciest gym, but the place where you'd actually want to show up because the people mattered as much as the workout.
Why It Mattered
As the owner, Chris Province, describes it: "BYB moved from a position of local studio to scalable wellness company. The visual identity suddenly matched the quality of the in-studio experience."
The brand foundation didn't just make things look better—it established BYB as more than a fitness studio. It became a lifestyle brand with clear values, visual authority, and the systematic thinking required for growth. The custom illustrations gave them assets that national chains couldn't replicate. The positioning strategy gave them language to differentiate themselves in an increasingly crowded market.
This wasn't cosmetic. It was the infrastructure that made everything else possible. Without this foundation, the website wouldn't have had a coherent voice. The competitive response to PowerLife wouldn't have felt credible. The acquisition wouldn't have happened. Everything that followed depended on getting this part right.
What we built
- Complete logo redesign and brand identity system
- Visual standards for typography, color, photography, and graphic elements
- Custom illustration library for marketing and studio applications
- Positioning strategy differentiating BYB from boutique competitors and national chains
- Brand application guidelines for digital platforms, physical spaces, retail, and marketing materials
- Studio signage and environmental graphics
