Mrida

Logo, brand identity and art direction.

Mrida is a spa and wellness studio built around Ayurvedic treatment, made almost entirely from materials that come out of the ground. Clay, lime plaster, bamboo, cotton and warmed oil.

It began with one observation from the founder: most people now spend their working lives looking at a screen, and they bring that with them through the door. The studio exists to undo it. The identity had to carry that idea without ever stating it, feel premium without gloss, and stay calm without going cold, in a category where earth toned wellness branding has started to look the same everywhere.

I drew the mark by hand. The identity is taken from the architecture rather than applied to it: three arches standing on a ground line, the same shape that repeats through the doorways and the plaster niches. Around it sits a five colour palette with a fixed ratio, a two typeface system, and one rule that governs everything physical, which is that the mark is pressed into the material rather than printed on top of it.

Material board for Mrida. Hand thrown clay, lime plaster, bamboo, dry cracked earth, warmed oil in a clay bowl and folded raw cotton.

Where the Mrida mark came from. The arched plaster niche, the clay vessel and the ground line, resolved into three hand drawn arches standing on a line.

Construction drawing of the Mrida mark. Three arches at equal offset of one third of the outer half width, standing on a ground line drawn wider than the arch. Each line drawn by hand, so the three never run perfectly parallel.

The four approved Mrida lockups. Stacked and horizontal, positive and reversed, shown on Chalk, Clay and Loam.

The Mrida palette. Chalk, Plaster, Loam, Clay and Leaf with hex, RGB, CMYK and Pantone values and the share each colour holds.

The Mrida mark in plaster relief above the reception counter, and pressed into an unglazed terracotta threshold tile.

A Mrida business card blind debossed into 600gsm uncoated cotton rag with one deckle edge left untrimmed, the mark alone on the front and an impression about a third of a millimetre deep.

The Mrida phone box. A lidded hand thrown terracotta box on a pale wood console at reception, with the mark pressed into the lid.

The phone box

The hour belongs to the guest, and the studio keeps it clear for them. The phone goes into a clay box at reception and comes back at the door.

The Mrida tote printed in Clay on unbleached cotton canvas, and the mark engraved into the brushed brass edge of the reception counter.

Three blind debossed Mrida treatment cards for Abhyanga, Shirodhara and Padabhyanga, and the mark embroidered in Chalk on the olive linen staff uniform.

A Mrida treatment room in lime plaster and terracotta, and the oil bottles in frosted glass with the mark on the label.

Credits

Role: Brand identity, art direction, image making.
Disciplines: Identity, typography, colour, packaging, environmental, art direction
Tools: Illustrator, Photoshop, Figma