Design Diaries: Simple logo improvements for Lifestream Integrative Healing Center

Recently I’ve been working on the website for Lifestream Integrative Healing Center and as I do with all my website designs, I asked the practice owner (Rebecca) to send me any and all versions of the logo that she has.

A little side note about “all versions” - often times when you have a logo designed, the designer will create a couple different layouts of the same logo. For example, one to be used in a vertical space, one to be used in a horizontal space, variations to be used within a dark or light background, a variation with only the emblem and no text, etc. The reason these are great to have is that it gives you a lot of flexibility for using your logo in all sorts of different contexts.

But sometimes you only get one version of your logo, as was the case for this design. Here’s all we had 👉

Now, imagine this logo shrunken down to about a third of the size you see it here - that’s the size we needed it to be on her website.

The problem was, at that smaller size, the text was not at all legible. And that text is her practice name - something pretty darn important!

As a designer and marketing expert, I value being honest and respectful in pointing out things that I know aren’t working in my clients’ favor. In this case, I was not hired for the job of creating a logo. But I was afraid that not being able to read the practice name within this logo would create a level of confusion and frustration with website visitors. (Not a great first impression of the business.)

At the very least, it didn’t give off that professional and calming vibe we were going for. (If I have to work to read your logo, I’m now working harder than I was before I landed on your site… that’s the opposite of calming 😉.)

In an attempt to keep the logo as close as possible to the original but also make it readable, I created a new version with the text bigger and outside the circle, making it easier to read:

I admit, it still wasn’t ideal. The tall, skinny letters were difficult to read light gold coloring was hard to see against most backgrounds. But like I said - I wanted to keep it as close as possible to her original version to keep in line with the brand aesthetic that she had previously established.

Now - let me be really honest here - no matter how confident I am in my design and marketing skills, no matter how many times I’ve seen my strategies work, every time I send a design or idea to a client there’s always a level of anxious anticipation I feel in waiting for their response. Of course I want my designs to do the job they were created for, but I also want my clients to love them! (Yes, your website/logo/etc. can do a wonderful job even if you don’t love the way it looks.)

So even though I knew changing this logo was for the best, I was a bit nervous to hear Rebecca’s response. When I got a chance to talk to her about it, I was thrilled that not only was she on board with the change - she actually liked it so much that she wanted to see what more I could do with it!

She mentioned that she actually wasn’t a huge fan of the super shiny gold color, nor of the font. She loved the idea of making it look a little bit more like a tarnished brass color, and incorporating two different fonts into the title to give the word “Lifestream” a stronger presence.

Now that I knew she was fully on board for a more extreme logo makeover and had a specific direction in mind, I went to work. And here’s what we finally landed with:

I love that we were able to keep a similar look and feel to the original logo, but update it in a way that makes it easier to read, and more aligned with the vision for the Lifestream Integrative Healing Center brand.

These relatively minor edits worked wonders to not only elevate the logo itself, but also to create a much more impactful first impression on the website. I’m so grateful to Rebecca and the trust she placed in me to let me work through this change with her!