Case Study 05
Ava Reyes: rebuilding a life coach's brand from the ground up
Ava Reyes
The Brief
Speculative project — Ava Reyes is a fictional client. All strategy, naming, and visual work is original and self-initiated.
Ava Reyes is a life coach for women navigating career transitions. She'd been running her practice for two years with a DIY Canva brand — generic teal and white, a clip-art-adjacent logo, no visual personality to speak of. She was charging premium rates, but her identity said budget. The brief was simple: build a brand that matches who she is and what she charges.
Brand Audit
Before touching a single design file, I audited the existing brand. Three problems stood out: the color palette communicated corporate finance, not human connection; the typography had no hierarchy — headlines and body text looked the same weight; and every touchpoint felt generic, like it could belong to any business in any industry. The audit made the direction obvious.
Brand Strategy
Ava's audience: women in their 30s and 40s, mid-career, feeling stuck. They want someone who feels warm and grounded, not clinical. Her brand personality: honest, warm, quietly confident, forward-moving. The new identity had to feel like a trusted mentor, not a motivational poster.
Brand Colors
Identity Design
The new logo is a clean wordmark in a warm serif with generous tracking — confident without being loud. Paired with dusty rose and deep taupe, the palette communicates warmth without being soft or forgettable. Every decision was filtered through the brand personality keywords.
Applications
The identity was applied across four touchpoints: a homepage mockup, four Instagram post templates, and a business card. The homepage hierarchy leads with the transformation promise, not Ava's credentials. The Instagram templates have three content modes — quote, insight, and offer — so the brand stays consistent regardless of what's being posted.
What I Learned
The audit step changed how I approach every brand project now. The most useful thing I did wasn't designing a new logo — it was identifying exactly why the old one wasn't working. When the problem is clearly diagnosed, the solution becomes obvious. Clients who see the before understand the after in a way that no amount of polished mockups alone can achieve.