Project By Jules
PFA: The making of a therapeutic brand
This project was done for the Italian startup PFA (Psicoterapia Fenomenologica Applicata). PFA is an organization focused on delivering courses and therapy sessions within the branch of psychology called phenomenological psychotherapy.
Creating a brand that express calmth
PFA had a clear value proposition and service they wanted to convey. But they needed a brand to communicate it to their audience.
The brand needed to signal calmth and approachability, while also speaking the same language as its more academic roots.
Different directions, not only for the logo, but the general identity, were created and tested - both with stakeholders of PFA, in design communities, and through user testing online.
Borrowing from other surprising industries
It's a great tactic to get inspired by industries far away from your own. Identify what brand associations you want. In this case is was calm, approachability, high quality, personal, friendly, honest, and simple. What are other industries that strive for these associations? I landed on mindfulness and self-care products. Surprised? Simetimes inspiration is best gathered far from home.
Brand colors are a very immediate conveyor of brand expression and positioning. The desaturated color palette with earthy and natural colors was a very conscious choice to trigger the desired associations.
Implementing the brand
Though these processes often seem linear when writing about them here, the brand identity was iterated upon multiple times, tested, and adjusted, before it could be implemented. The website was created, Canva templates were suggested, and mockups of merchandise were designed to make it come to life.
The deliverables
This project resulted in the following;
a brand identity including original logo design, fonts, colors, iconography, illustrations, and tone of voice
a mini brand book with guidelines of brand and asset usage
web design and implementation
video tutorials on how to maintain the website and how to analyse the website via behavior analytics
