The challenge was to move the brand beyond a traditional salon identity without losing the clarity of what Ren actually does.

It still needed to communicate hair, makeup and styling services, but those services weren’t the whole story. The deeper value was transformation, confidence, clarity and human connection. Ren wasn’t simply changing how someone looked. She was helping women feel more like themselves again.

The strategy was built around three key audiences: women looking for reinvention, women becoming more visible in their work or personal lives, and women who simply wanted trusted guidance without the pressure, complexity or judgement often attached to beauty.

This gave the brand a much clearer emotional position. It wasn’t anti-ageing, trend obsessed or built around fixing women. It was about helping them step into their next chapter feeling current, capable and fully themselves.

I also created a founder-led brand architecture that allowed Ren and The Lonesome Stylist to work together without becoming interchangeable. Ren’s personal brand carries the stories, opinions, humour, education and connection that build trust. The Lonesome Stylist houses the services, signature experiences and future offers that turn that trust into something clients can book and buy.

That structure gave the brand room to grow beyond appointments, with the potential to hold content, community, products, education and experiences without confusing the core offer.

The brand voice followed the same direction. Warm, direct and full of life, but never overworked or overly polished. Ren needed to sound like someone women could trust in the chair, not someone lecturing them from an expert pedestal. The language was designed to feel honest, encouraging and stylish, with enough humour and personality to make the brand unmistakably hers.

Visually, I wanted the identity to feel editorial and refined, but still playful, expressive and human.

The primary wordmark uses elongated editorial typography, with the “I” transformed into a custom hairpin detail. That small shift gave the identity something recognisable without making it feel like an obvious salon logo.

A woven submark represents connection, transformation and the way different women’s stories come together through the brand. The wider system includes hairpin icons, organic linework, wavy framing, film-strip elements and imperfect patterns, giving the identity movement and personality across different applications.

Periwinkle became the main colour, supported by cream and black for structure, then lime and pink for unexpected moments of energy. The result feels polished and confident without becoming too sweet, sterile or predictable.