A studio concept for VÄXA, a spa rooted in stillness, ritual, and seasonal restoration. This project explores visual identity, guest materials, and sensory design for a modern alpine-inspired wellness space.
Client
VÄXA Spa
year
2024
role
Brand Identity, Experience Design, Print Collateral, Spatial Branding
Project Description
VÄXA is a boutique spa concept inspired by Swedish slow living, alpine minimalism, and hydrotherapy culture. Created for the design-conscious wellness guest, the brand is understated, architectural, and elemental, a space where scent, silence, and light do the talking.
01. Context + Background
Many spas lean heavily into nature clichés or overly feminine branding. VÄXA needed to feel genderless, modern, and highly designed, a space where creative professionals, founders, and world travelers could fully unplug and reset. Inspired by Scandinavian concepts like lagom and friluftsliv, the brand needed to reflect balance and deep simplicity.
01. Context + Background
Many spas lean heavily into nature clichés or overly feminine branding. VÄXA needed to feel genderless, modern, and highly designed, a space where creative professionals, founders, and world travelers could fully unplug and reset. Inspired by Scandinavian concepts like lagom and friluftsliv, the brand needed to reflect balance and deep simplicity.
02. My Role
As the concept designer and art director, I created the full brand and experience system:
Developed the name VÄXA (Swedish for "to grow") and its tonal direction
Designed the visual identity: logotype, type system, color palette
Created printed materials for guests: bath ritual cards, treatment menus, check-in forms
Styled environmental brand moments: scent story, locker tags, embroidered towels
Built a flexible identity that could extend to wellness products and future locations
04. Approach / Solution
I built the identity around structure and breath. The logotype is slightly extended and balanced by negative space, giving the brand a meditative visual rhythm. Colors are taken from nature in winter: stone, pine, mineral water, ash, snow.
Printed materials are uncoated, muted, and minimal folded sauna guides, stitched treatment menus, hand-lettered aromatherapy cards. The visual language leaves room for pause, honoring what the space is truly about: sensory reset.
05. Results / Impact
Positioned VÄXA as a high-end, globally inspired spa brand ready for press and partnership
Created a brand system that easily extends into skincare, body rituals, or branded wellness amenities
Built a hospitality identity that feels serene, editorial, and scalable
Developed a space that speaks fluently to a creative, wellness-minded audience
