Ananda is a startup Vancouver-based collective residing on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səl̓ilwətaɁɬ / sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) nations. The collective's mission is to create wholesome healing experiences that care for your entire mind, body, and soul, with lots of medicinal giggles! To do this, Ananda partnered with artists, healers, and wisdom-keepers of traditional and ancestral ways of healing, making their sacred knowledge accessible to more people. With Ananda's experiences, you will learn how to radiate more self-love. You will feel more connected to other people in your community and Mother Earth.
My role was to further develop Ananda's visual identity. We started by clarifying Ravi-Shay's vision and transforming it into something tangible. The website was the first step to concretizing his primary concepts. The main goals were to rouse brand awareness, promote the three care kits, and get email sign-ups for people to register their interest. The brand imageries needed to reflect safety, security, comfort, and a vibe that connected body sensitivity to what Ananda offers.
The biggest challenge was visually representing Ananda's ideas without having any physical products. We thought that having simple line-art illustrations of the care kit items would help viewers soak up the concept. And we hoped that curating some joyful and inclusive images would create an emotional impression on the audience. This gave us a visually dynamic suite of ideas to use across the web, communications and social media.
*
At this stage, the logos, colour palette, illustrations, typography, and imageries were all set to guide us to a cohesive brand. Then came along the Breath Wheel Journal, the first product offering. This is a 192-page book that integrates ancient Indigenous and yogic healing wisdom to help you find balance across all areas of your life. The journal offers some dotted pages for free-form journaling and some games, poems, and self-reflection activities. I worked on the two-colour layout, some of the infographics, and the web page. We also did mockups to simulate the journal cover and the inside pages until the journal is printed. We sold $1500 worth of journals in the first month. Pre-order here: https://www.anandacooperative.com/shop/p/breathwheeljournal.
Within this first phase of the Ananda project, it was great to see all the elements coming together to form a cohesive visual identity. Sometimes we need to see it in action to feel more connected, and I think this is what my client needed to kick start Ananda's journey. In my experience, taking the time to ask big questions to create an accurate understanding of the target audience and the competition will level up the impact of the design on the world. Nailing down the values, mission, and goals makes a huge difference in the results, as everything becomes more focused.
*
Collaboration:
Founder & Creative Director: Ravi-Shay (They)
Copywriter: Jacqueline Salomé (Her) and Ravi-Shay (They)
Notable illustrations in the Breath Wheel Journal: Tajliya Jama (They)
Cover & end-sheets artworks: Syilx Okanagan and David Wilson Sookinakin
Logo: Sierra Holmes (Her)
Front-end development: Sara-Jane (She)
Tags:
Brand development, website design, web components, typography system, products illustrations, presentation deck, social media templates, print layout, book design
