Truppe Rebranding: How Holman Design Turned a Product-Trapped Brand Into a Scalable Identity

Some brands are born too small for their own ambition. They start with a name that fits a single product, a single shelf, a single season — and then they grow, and suddenly the name becomes a cage. Truppe, an artisanal confectionery based in Pelotas, Brazil, knew that feeling intimately. The original brand was solid. The product was good. But the name? It pointed in only one direction.

That’s the kind of strategic constraint that most small businesses either ignore or paper over with a new logo. Felipe Corrêa Holman of Holman Design did neither. Instead, he dismantled the brand from the ground up and rebuilt something designed to last — and to grow. The result is a Truppe rebranding project that deserves serious attention from anyone working in brand strategy, visual identity, or artisanal food packaging.

This is a case study worth studying closely. Not because it’s flashy — though it absolutely is — but because every decision in it connects back to a strategic reason. That combination is rarer than it should be.

What Does It Mean When a Brand Is “Product-Trapped”?

The term is worth coining because the condition is extremely common. A product-trapped brand is one whose name, visual identity, or positioning is so tied to a specific item or category that expansion feels like a contradiction. Customers associate the brand with one thing. The name reinforces that thing. And so, over time, the brand becomes a ceiling rather than a platform.

For Truppe’s predecessor, this was the central problem. The original name locked the brand into a single product association. Launching cookies alongside brownies — let alone expanding into retail, gifting, or franchising — would have required customers to mentally override everything the name already told them.

This is also one of the most underdiagnosed problems in artisanal food branding. Makers focus on the product first, the name second, and the brand architecture almost never. By the time growth becomes a real goal, the brand is already fighting against itself.

Holman’s process began with deep market research, competitor analysis, and direct engagement with customer perceptions. The insight that emerged was clarifying: there was a real opportunity to differentiate through professional design in a category where most competitors relied on generic, interchangeable aesthetics. The gap was there. The question was how to fill it with something that could actually scale.

The Strategic Logic Behind the Name “Truppe”

Naming is arguably the hardest single decision in a rebrand. Get it right, and it carries the whole identity forward. Get it wrong, and no amount of visual design can compensate.

“Truppe” earns its name on two levels simultaneously. First, it references the idea of a troupe of performers — a collective, a crew, a group of people who show up together to create something joyful. That instinct toward togetherness and celebration aligns precisely with what an artisanal confectionery is supposed to feel like. You don’t buy a brownie alone. You share it. You bring it somewhere.

Second, the name draws from the Italian expression è troppo, meaning roughly “it’s too much” in the best possible sense — overwhelming, extraordinary, more than expected. For a premium artisanal brand, that’s exactly the emotional register you want to hit. The product should feel indulgent. The experience should feel generous.

Together, these two references create a name that works on a gut level without requiring explanation. It sounds right before you understand why. That phonetic and conceptual alignment is the hallmark of strong strategic naming in artisanal food brand identity.

Why Naming Needs to Come Before Visual Design

This sequencing matters more than most rebranding discussions acknowledge. Holman’s process treated naming as a strategic output of research, not a creative exercise that runs parallel to logo design. The name came from a positioning decision, and the visual identity came from the name.

That’s the right order. And it’s not always how it happens.

When studios jump to visual design before the naming and positioning are locked, the result is often a brand that looks cohesive but feels arbitrary. The colors are nice. The typeface is interesting. But nothing explains why this brand sounds the way it does, or why it behaves the way it does across different contexts. Truppe avoided that trap by doing the strategic work first.

Truppe rebranding project by Felipe Corrêa Holman.

How the Visual Identity System Translates Strategy Into Form

Once the name and positioning were established, Holman’s team built a visual identity system that carries the brand’s personality across every surface. The core elements — a custom logotype, a bold color palette, and an exclusive illustration system — work together to create what I’d call shelf-disruptive coherence.

That phrase is intentional. Most artisanal food brands choose between two failure modes: either they’re so minimal they disappear on a crowded shelf, or they’re so busy they look chaotic and untrustworthy. Truppe threads that needle through a system that is simultaneously bold and organized.

The custom logotype gives the brand a singular, ownable mark — something that doesn’t look like it came from a font library. Custom lettering at the brand level signals craft and investment in a way that a standard typeface never can. It also ensures that competitors can’t accidentally echo your identity by choosing the same font.

The color palette commits to vibrancy without tipping into noise. This is harder than it sounds. Bold palettes require discipline — knowing which colors anchor the system and which ones activate it situationally.

The Illustration System as a Differentiation Engine

This is the decision that stands out most clearly from a strategic design perspective. Rather than using photography or generic graphic elements, Holman built an exclusive illustration system where each product category — cookies and brownies — gets its own dedicated illustration.

This solves multiple problems at once. It creates clear product differentiation within a unified brand language. It gives the brand a visual signature that is completely proprietary. And it builds toward a future where new product categories can simply receive new illustrations, expanding the brand without requiring a redesign.

That last point is crucial. The illustration system isn’t just a design choice — it’s a growth infrastructure decision. Every new product line Truppe eventually launches already has a design logic waiting for it. That kind of forward-thinking is what separates brand strategy from brand decoration.

Packaging Design as the Brand’s Primary Customer Touchpoint

For an artisanal confectionery brand, packaging isn’t marketing collateral. It is the brand. The moment a customer picks up a Truppe box, everything they think about the product — its quality, its price point, its emotional register — is shaped by what they’re holding.

Holman treated packaging design accordingly, making it a central focus rather than an output of the visual identity work. The resulting system does something specific and important: it prioritizes the brand over the individual product.

This is a deliberate inversion of how many artisanal food brands structure their packaging. The instinct is usually to lead with the product — “Dark Chocolate Brownie,” “Hazelnut Cookie” — and treat the brand as secondary. That approach makes sense for product launches. It makes much less sense for brand building.

By leading with Truppe and letting the product information follow in a clear hierarchy, the packaging trains customers to build loyalty to the brand rather than to any single SKU. When Truppe eventually launches a new product, customers will trust it before they’ve even tried it. That’s brand equity working exactly as it should.

Scalability as a Design Principle in Artisanal Food Packaging

The packaging system was also built explicitly for scale. This is worth calling out as its own principle: scalable packaging architecture means designing a system that can absorb new products, new sizes, and new retail contexts without requiring a visual overhaul.

Truppe’s system organizes information hierarchically, uses the illustration system for product differentiation, and maintains a consistent visual language across all SKUs. Adding a new product line means creating a new illustration and slotting it into an existing template — not starting from scratch.

For a brand with ambitions that include new product lines, physical retail, and eventual franchising, this isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s a foundational requirement. Holman built that requirement into the system from day one.

The Truppe Rebranding and the Concept of Emotional Architecture

I want to introduce a framework here that I think captures what Holman achieved across the full project. I’m calling it Emotional Architecture — the deliberate construction of brand elements that create consistent emotional responses across every customer interaction, from first sight to repeat purchase.

Most brands manage to create emotional resonance at one or two touchpoints. The logo looks great. The packaging feels premium. But the name doesn’t connect to either of those feelings, or the in-store experience breaks the spell, or the social media presence doesn’t carry the same energy.

Truppe is different because every layer of the brand communicates the same thing: joyful, collective, indulgent, artisanal, high-quality. The name says it. The illustrations show it. The packaging reinforces it. The color palette broadcasts it from across a room. That alignment isn’t accidental — it’s the product of strategic work done before any visual decisions were made.

When emotional architecture is done right, customers don’t need to consciously process why they trust a brand. They just do. That trust is the compounded result of consistent emotional signals, and it’s what makes brands scalable across new products, new markets, and new formats.

What This Rebranding Reveals About the Future of Artisanal Brand Strategy

The Truppe project points toward something broader happening in artisanal food branding right now. The gap between craft-scale production and professional brand strategy is closing. For a long time, the assumption was that strategic branding was for big companies — the kind of investment that only made sense with a significant marketing budget.

That assumption is becoming obsolete. Independent studios like Holman Design are proving that brand strategy and visual identity at the highest level are accessible to artisanal producers. And the brands that invest early in that strategic foundation are building structural advantages over competitors who treat design as a finishing touch.

Here’s a prediction worth making explicitly: within the next five years, the artisanal food brands that don’t invest in strategic brand architecture — naming, positioning, visual identity systems, and scalable packaging design — will find themselves unable to compete in the channels they want to enter. Retail buyers, specialty distributors, and franchise operators will increasingly filter for brand professionalism as a basic qualification.

Truppe has already cleared that bar. That’s not a small thing.

The Holman Design Approach: Strategy-First, Aesthetics as Output

Felipe Corrêa Holman’s work reflects a methodology that deserves its own name. I’d call it strategic visual immersion — a process that refuses to separate design decisions from business decisions, and that treats aesthetics not as a starting point but as the output of deep strategic thinking.

This isn’t new as a concept, but it’s remarkably rare in execution. Many studios claim to be strategy-first. Few actually sequence their work that way. When you look at the Truppe project from the initial research phase through the naming decision to the visual identity system and the packaging architecture, the strategy-first commitment is visible in every layer.

That’s the standard worth holding brand work to — not just whether it looks good, but whether every visual decision has a strategic reason behind it.

The Long-Term Potential Embedded in the Truppe Brand

Let’s talk about where Truppe goes from here. The rebranding didn’t just solve the product-trapped problem — it built a brand that is structurally prepared for significant expansion.

The naming positions Truppe as an experiential brand, not a product brand. That distinction matters enormously when you’re thinking about physical retail. An experiential brand can justify a dedicated retail concept. It can support a gifting line, a seasonal collection, a limited-edition collaboration. A product brand can only sell more of the same product.

The illustration system is infinitely expandable. New product categories get new illustrations. The brand stays coherent while the assortment grows. That’s a packaging system that can support a hundred SKUs without losing visual identity.

The franchise potential the brief mentions is actually quite credible for a brand that has done this strategic work. Franchise systems live and die on brand consistency. A brand with a clear visual system, a defined emotional register, and a scalable packaging architecture is exactly what franchise operators need. Truppe has all of that now.

What comes next depends on execution, on distribution, on all the things that happen outside the design studio. But the brand infrastructure is there. That’s more than most artisanal confectionery brands can say.

Lessons for Brand Designers and Small Business Owners Alike

The Truppe rebranding offers clear takeaways that apply well beyond artisanal food. Whether you’re a brand designer thinking about how to structure your process, or a business owner wondering whether your current brand is limiting your growth, there’s something here for you.

First: naming is a strategic decision, not a creative one. The name “Truppe” didn’t emerge from a brainstorming session. It emerged from research, from positioning work, from a clear articulation of what the brand needed to communicate and to whom. That sequence matters.

Second: visual identity systems are investments, not expenses. A custom logotype and an exclusive illustration system cost more than a template-based identity. They also create a proprietary visual language that no competitor can replicate. The return is measured in brand recognition, customer loyalty, and market positioning — over years, not months.

Third: packaging hierarchy is a strategic choice. Leading with the brand rather than the product is a decision about what kind of loyalty you’re trying to build. If you want customers to come back for Truppe, you lead with Truppe. Every time.

Fourth: design for scale from day one. The illustration system wasn’t built for the current product range — it was built for the brand Truppe intends to become. That forward-looking design discipline is what separates brand work that lasts from brand work that needs to be redone in three years.

Frequently Asked Questions About the Truppe Rebranding Project

What is the Truppe rebranding project?

The Truppe rebranding project is a complete brand transformation for an artisanal confectionery based in Pelotas, Brazil. It was designed and executed by Felipe Corrêa Holman of Holman Design. The project covered strategic repositioning, naming, visual identity design, and packaging design, with the goal of transforming a product-trapped brand into a scalable, emotionally resonant identity prepared for long-term growth.

Why did Truppe need a rebrand?

The original brand name was strongly associated with a single product, which limited the company’s ability to expand into new product categories, retail environments, or a potential franchise model. The rebrand addressed this structural limitation by creating a name, positioning, and visual identity system that supports growth rather than constraining it.

What does the name “Truppe” mean?

The name “Truppe” draws from two references. First, it evokes the concept of a troupe of performers — a collective, playful, and expressive group aligned with the brand’s celebratory personality. Second, it references the Italian expression è troppo, which means “it’s amazing” or “it’s too much” in the most indulgent sense. Together, these references create a name that communicates energy, togetherness, and premium quality.

What is an exclusive illustration system in branding?

An exclusive illustration system is a set of custom-designed illustrations created specifically for a brand, where each illustration corresponds to a product category or subcategory within the brand’s lineup. In Truppe’s case, cookies and brownies each have their own dedicated illustration. This creates clear product differentiation within a unified visual language and also provides a framework for future expansion — new product categories simply receive new illustrations without requiring a brand redesign.

How does Truppe’s packaging design support brand growth?

Truppe’s packaging was designed as a scalable system from the start. It organizes information hierarchically, leading with the brand name rather than individual product names. This trains customer loyalty toward the brand rather than any single SKU. The system also accommodates future product lines, new sizes, and new retail formats without requiring a visual overhaul, making it a long-term packaging architecture rather than a one-time design solution.

Who is Felipe Corrêa Holman?

Felipe Corrêa Holman is a brand designer and strategist with over a decade of experience in building high-impact brands. He is the founder of Holman Design, an independent strategic branding studio that partners with companies to create distinctive brand identities rooted in strategy. His work spans visual identity systems, packaging design, and brand strategy for businesses across various industries. You can explore his work at holman.design.

What is the difference between brand strategy and brand design?

Brand strategy defines the positioning, personality, naming, and long-term direction of a brand — it answers the questions of who the brand is for, what it stands for, and how it differentiates from competitors. Brand design translates that strategy into visual form: logos, color systems, typography, illustration systems, and packaging. The most effective brand work treats strategy and design as sequential steps rather than parallel processes, with strategy firmly preceding visual execution. The Truppe project is a clear example of that sequencing done correctly.

Can artisanal food brands benefit from a professional brand strategy?

Absolutely — and the benefit is arguably greater for artisanal brands than for large ones. Artisanal producers compete in premium and specialty channels where visual differentiation and brand credibility are critical purchase drivers. A professionally designed brand identity signals quality before the customer has even tried the product. It also creates the structural foundation for retail partnerships, gifting lines, and future expansion that artisanal brands with informal identities often struggle to access.

What is “scalable packaging architecture” in artisanal food branding?

Scalable packaging architecture refers to a packaging design system built to accommodate future growth without requiring a complete visual redesign. Key elements include a clear information hierarchy, a consistent brand-forward visual system, and a modular approach to product differentiation — such as Truppe’s illustration system — that can absorb new products by following an established design logic. This approach treats packaging as brand infrastructure rather than one-time design work.

What can other brands learn from the Truppe rebranding?

Several principles from the Truppe project are broadly applicable. Naming should emerge from strategic positioning rather than creative brainstorming in isolation. Visual identity systems should be built for the brand you intend to become, not just the brand you are today. Packaging hierarchy shapes customer loyalty — lead with the brand, not the product. And design for scalability from day one, so that growth feels like a continuation of the brand rather than a disruption of it.

All images © Felipe Corrêa Holman. Check out other inspiring Graphic Design, Branding, and Packaging Design projects here at WE AND THE COLOR.

#branding #design #FelipeCorrêaHolman #graphicDesign #HolmanDesign #PackagingDesign

Koit Branding Proves That Dating Apps Don’t Have to Feel Like Dating Apps

Most dating app brands look the same. Bold gradients, a heart or a flame, a tagline about finding love. The visual language is so predictable that users barely notice it anymore. That’s exactly why the Koit branding project by Felipe Corrêa Holman of Holman\Design® deserves serious attention. Instead of following the category playbook, Holman broke it entirely — and built something that feels genuinely new.

Koit is a relationship-management dating app led by former Amazon executive Miller Simberg. From the start, Simberg’s premise was sharp: professionals use CRM systems to manage business relationships with precision and care. So why does managing personal or romantic relationships still feel so chaotic, reactive, and disposable? Koit was built to answer that question. And Holman\Design® was brought in to make that answer visible.

This article breaks down exactly how the Koit brand identity was built, what makes it strategically distinctive, and why this project is a model worth studying for anyone working in brand design for digital products.

Koit Branding by Felipe Corrêa Holman

Why Does the Dating App Market Desperately Need Better Branding?

The dating app industry is saturated beyond belief. There are hundreds of apps competing for attention, yet the brand differentiation between most of them is nearly zero. Tinder gamified swiping. Bumble gave women control. Hinge calls itself “designed to be deleted.” Each carved out a positioning niche — but the visual identities still feel like variations of the same template.

Furthermore, the emotional context of dating apps is fundamentally broken. Users report anxiety, burnout, and low trust as chronic problems. The experience often feels transactional rather than meaningful. That’s not just a product problem — it’s a branding failure. When a brand consistently signals speed, volume, and game mechanics, it trains users to behave that way too.

Koit’s entry into this market wasn’t about competing on features. It was about reframing the category entirely. Holman\Design® understood this immediately. The strategic brief wasn’t “make a prettier dating app brand.” It was: build a brand that makes people feel safe, prepared, and intentional about how they connect with others.

That’s a fundamentally different design problem. And it demanded a fundamentally different solution.

The CRM-to-Romance Transfer Model: Koit’s Core Brand Positioning

One of the most striking things about the Koit brand strategy is how clearly it borrows from the B2B world. I’d call this the CRM-to-Romance Transfer Model — a positioning framework that applies the logic of structured relationship management to personal and romantic connection.

This model works because it speaks directly to a real, underserved user group: busy professionals who are actually good at managing complexity in their careers, but feel overwhelmed and disorganized in their personal lives. These users don’t need another app that shows them 200 profiles per day. They need a system that helps them show up with intention.

By positioning Koit as a relationship manager — not just a dating app — Holman\Design® accomplished something rare. They gave the product a category of its own. That’s the highest level of brand strategy: not to win inside an existing category, but to define a new one.

The Three Brand Pillars That Drive Everything

The Koit brand strategy is built on three clearly defined pillars: intentionality, security, and innovation. These aren’t vague values pulled from a brand workshop. Each one does specific strategic work.

Intentionality pushes back against the mindless swiping behavior that dominates the market. It signals that Koit users are choosing quality over quantity. Security directly addresses the anxiety that so many users feel in digital dating spaces — the fear of judgment, the vulnerability of putting yourself out there. Innovation frames the product as a new kind of tool, not just another app update. Together, these pillars create a coherent brand personality: supportive, modern, and trustworthy.

Notice what’s not in those pillars. There’s no mention of algorithm speed, match volume, or entertainment. Koit deliberately steps away from the metrics that define competitive success in the dating app market. That’s a bold strategic choice — and it’s the right one.

Mythological Anchoring: How Estonian Folklore Became a Brand Asset

Here’s where the Koit visual identity gets genuinely fascinating. The name Koit comes from Estonian mythology, where Koit is an eternal lover who meets their partner only briefly — at dawn and at dusk. They never spend a full day together. But those fleeting moments carry extraordinary depth and meaning.

I’d describe the strategic use of this origin as Mythological Anchoring — a technique where a brand draws its emotional DNA directly from a cultural or mythological narrative, giving it depth and resonance that no invented brand story could replicate. Done well, it’s extraordinarily powerful. Done poorly, it feels like a branding exercise in cultural appropriation.

Holman\Design® did it well. The mythology doesn’t feel forced or decorative. It genuinely informs the brand’s emotional register. The idea that meaningful connection happens in moments — not in endless scrolling — maps perfectly onto Koit’s product philosophy. Every touchpoint in the brand now carries that emotional weight, even if users never read a single word about the mythology behind the name.

What the Logo Actually Communicates

The Koit logo combines a speech bubble with a soft embracing form. That combination is doing a lot of work. The speech bubble signals conversation and communication — the foundation of any real relationship. The embracing form introduces warmth, safety, and physical closeness. Together, they communicate a brand promise without using a single word.

Holman chose a modified Vinila typeface for the wordmark. This is a smart choice for a digital-native brand. Vinila is clean and highly legible at small sizes, which matters enormously for an app UI where the logo appears across dozens of contexts. The modifications ensure the wordmark feels custom and proprietary rather than off-the-shelf.

The overall visual system avoids the aggressive color palettes and sharp geometric forms that dominate dating app design. Instead, the identity projects softness, clarity, and structure — qualities that reinforce the brand’s commitment to emotional safety.

The Emotional Trust Stack: Designing for Anxiety-Aware Users

One of Holman\Design®’s sharpest insights in this project was recognizing that a significant portion of Koit’s target audience experiences real anxiety around dating. This isn’t a niche use case. Dating anxiety is extremely common, particularly among professionals who are confident in structured environments but feel destabilized in ambiguous social situations.

To address this, the brand was built around what I’d call the Emotional Trust Stack — a layered approach to building user confidence through every brand touchpoint. The stack works in three layers:

Layer 1 — Visual Safety: The color palette, typography, and logo form all signal calm, warmth, and approachability. Nothing about the visual identity feels aggressive or high-pressure. This is intentional. When a user opens the app for the first time, the brand should immediately communicate: “You’re safe here.”

Layer 2 — Tonal Reassurance: Koit’s tone of voice is warm, clear, and encouraging. The brand doesn’t talk to users like they’re consumers of a product. It talks to them like a thoughtful friend who happens to have good systems. That distinction matters enormously in a category built on vulnerability.

Layer 3 — Structural Credibility: The CRM-positioning framework gives Koit authority. It signals that this product was built by people who understand both technology and human behavior. For users who’ve been burned by frivolous apps, that credibility is exactly what earns a first download.

How Holman\Design® Built a Scalable Brand System for a Digital Product

One of the practical challenges of brand design for apps is that the identity has to work across an enormous range of contexts simultaneously. A logo needs to read clearly at 16px in a tab bar and at full resolution in a marketing billboard. A color palette has to work in both dark mode and light mode. Typography must be legible across dozens of screen sizes and operating systems.

Holman\Design® delivered a flexible logo system, a complete visual identity framework, and brand assets designed for both app UI and marketing materials. This kind of deliverable scope reflects a mature understanding of how digital brands actually live in the world. A beautiful static logo is worthless if it can’t adapt to the product it represents.

The result is a cohesive and scalable brand system — one that gave Koit’s team everything they needed for a confident go-to-market launch. That’s the real measure of great brand work: not how it looks in a case study PDF, but how well it enables the client team to move forward independently.

Why a Confident Go-to-Market Launch Starts With Brand Clarity

A lot of founders underestimate how much brand clarity accelerates every other part of the business. When your brand strategy is sharp, product decisions become easier. Marketing messages write themselves. Hiring conversations have a frame of reference. Investor pitches have a clear narrative.

Koit launched with that clarity. The brand wasn’t ambiguous about what it was, who it was for, or why it existed differently than every other option in the market. That’s not a small thing. That’s the strategic foundation that everything else is built on.

What the Koit Brand Identity Reveals About the Future of Dating App Design

Looking at this project, I think it points toward a broader shift happening in consumer app branding. The era of the gamified, dopamine-optimized dating app brand is running out of goodwill. Users are exhausted. They want apps that respect their time, their emotions, and their intelligence.

The brands that will win the next decade of this market are those that position themselves as tools for intentional living rather than entertainment products. Koit is one of the first apps to build that positioning into its brand DNA from day one, rather than trying to retrofit it onto an existing identity.

Felipe Corrêa Holman’s work here isn’t just good brand design. It’s a case study in category creation through branding. By refusing to accept the dating app category’s existing visual and verbal language, Holman\Design® helped Koit step outside that category entirely and build something with far more long-term defensibility.

The Holman\Design® Approach: Why Strategic Immersion Matters

Holman describes his process as rooted in “deep immersion, critical thinking, and a strong commitment to delivering work that generates real value.” That’s not marketing language — it’s an accurate description of what this project required.

You can’t arrive at the CRM-to-romance insight through a standard brand questionnaire. You get there by sitting with the problem long enough to see it from an angle that competitors haven’t explored. That’s what separates brand strategy from brand decoration. And it’s why independent studios like Holman\Design® consistently produce work that outperforms what larger agencies deliver.

The Koit project is proof of that. Every strategic decision in this brand — the category repositioning, the mythological anchoring, the anxiety-aware design system — traces back to a designer who chose to think before he designed.

Koit Brand Strategy vs. Competitors: What Makes It Actually Different

It’s worth being specific about what differentiates the Koit brand strategy from the competitive landscape. Most dating app brands compete on one of three axes: fun (Tinder), empowerment (Bumble), or romance (Hinge). Koit competes on a fourth axis entirely: structure and intentionality.

That fourth axis is currently unoccupied. No major player in the dating app market owns the positioning of “serious relationship management tool.” Koit does. That’s an extraordinary competitive advantage that was built entirely through brand strategy — before a single user was acquired.

Furthermore, the brand speaks to a demographic that competitors consistently underserve: busy, high-achieving professionals who want meaningful relationships but don’t have time for endless trial and error. These users have money, they have discipline, and they have very low tolerance for products that waste their time. A brand that signals structure, trust, and efficiency speaks directly to their priorities.

Frequently Asked Questions About the Koit Branding Project

What is the Koit app, and who created it?

Koit is a relationship manager and dating app founded by former Amazon executive Miller Simberg. It was built to help users manage personal and romantic relationships with the same intentionality that professionals bring to business relationship management through CRM tools.

Who designed the Koit brand identity?

The Koit brand identity was designed by Felipe Corrêa Holman, founder of Holman\Design®, an independent strategic branding studio. Holman led the complete brand strategy and visual identity development for the project.

What does the name Koit mean?

Koit comes from Estonian mythology and represents an eternal lover who meets their partner only briefly at dawn and dusk. The name reflects the brand’s philosophy that meaningful connections happen in intentional moments rather than through constant, low-quality interactions.

What typeface does the Koit brand use?

Koit uses a modified version of the Vinila typeface for its wordmark. The modifications ensure clarity, scalability across digital platforms, and a proprietary feel that distinguishes the brand from generic typography choices.

How does Koit differentiate itself from other dating apps?

Koit positions itself not as a dating app but as a relationship manager — borrowing the logic of B2B CRM systems and applying it to personal and romantic connections. The brand focuses on intentionality, security, and innovation rather than algorithm speed or match volume.

What is Holman\Design® known for?

Holman\Design® is an independent strategic branding studio founded by Felipe Corrêa Holman. The studio specializes in brand strategy, visual identity systems, and packaging design for companies that need to stand out through purposeful, results-driven creative work.

What deliverables did Holman\Design® produce for Koit?

The project deliverables included a flexible logo system, a complete visual identity framework, and brand assets designed for both app UI and marketing materials. The result was a cohesive and scalable brand system ready for go-to-market launch.

Felipe Corrêa Holman of Holman\Design® designed Koit branding. Learn more about the studio’s work at holman.design. Feel free to check out WE AND THE COLOR’s Branding and Graphic Design categories for more inspiring projects.

#branding #design #FelipeCorrêaHolman #graphicDesign #HolmanDesign #Koit

Logo Design and Branding by Holman Design for i-Thrive

Beyond the Arrow: How i-Thrive’s Logo Design Redefined Healthspan Branding

The modern wellness industry is moving beyond quick fixes and toward a more profound goal: increasing healthspan. This new frontier focuses on the quality of life, not just its length. Within this evolving market, healthspan clinics are emerging as vital hubs for personalized, data-driven health. Consequently, a brand’s visual identity has become its most crucial asset for building trust. The recent branding project for i-Thrive by Holman Design provides a powerful example of this. It demonstrates how strategic logo design can create a narrative of transformation, positioning a brand as a true leader.

The health sector often presents a fragmented experience for consumers. People typically seek diagnostic services in one place and coaching or therapy in another. i-Thrive, a UK-based clinic founded by Jodi and Mark Zibser, directly addresses this disconnect. The clinic offers advanced diagnostics like DEXA scans and metabolic testing. Furthermore, it combines these services with personalized coaching for fitness, nutrition, and longevity. This integrated model is their unique strength. However, they needed a cohesive brand identity to communicate this value, especially to a demanding audience of executives, professionals, and athletes.

Logo design and branding by Holman Design for i-Thrive

The Strategic Blueprint for a Modern Health Brand

Holman Design’s engagement began with a deep strategic foundation. The team first conducted extensive sessions to understand the founders’ vision and market positioning. Following this, they performed in-depth research into branding trends and consumer behavior within the wellness space. This initial phase moved the project beyond mere aesthetics. It established a clear mission: to build a visual system that embodies i-Thrive’s integrated, scientific, and transformative approach. This strategic foresight is what separates enduring brands from temporary ones. What does your brand promise, and how does your visual identity deliver on that promise?

Deconstructing the i-Thrive Logo Design

The resulting identity system is a model of clarity and intelligence. At its center is a logo that is both simple and deeply meaningful. It is a perfect fusion of form and function.

The Monogram as a Symbol of Progress

The logo’s core is a monogram formed from the letters “i” and “T.” These geometric shapes cleverly combine to create a distinct, upward-pointing arrow. This arrow is a powerful and universal symbol of growth and positive transformation. For a brand dedicated to improving health and performance, this visual metaphor is incredibly effective. It immediately communicates the forward momentum that clients seek on their wellness journey. Thus, the mark becomes a visual shorthand for the clinic’s core promise.

Typography and Color That Speak Volumes

The monogram is paired with a clean, contemporary wordmark. The choice of a bold, geometric typeface reinforces the scientific precision of i-Thrive’s methods. It feels modern, trustworthy, and evidence-based. In addition, the color palette boldly departs from industry conventions. Instead of muted blues or greens, the brand uses a vibrant coral red. This energetic hue reflects vitality and proactive health. The palette is then balanced with sophisticated neutral tones and subtle gradients, adding a premium feel. The combination is both dynamic and reassuring, perfectly capturing the brand’s essence.

How a Strong Identity Translates into Business Growth

The impact of this rebranding effort was both immediate and significant. The new visual identity firmly positioned i-Thrive as a distinct leader in the competitive UK healthspan market. It provided a clear, consistent language that articulated their unique integration of diagnostics and coaching.

This cohesion directly strengthened their digital presence. As a result, i-Thrive saw enhanced engagement across platforms like Instagram and Facebook, along with a boost in conversions. More importantly, the branding fundamentally shifted how the audience perceived the clinic. Clients no longer saw i-Thrive as just a place for tests. Instead, they viewed it as a comprehensive partner in their personal health transformation. This evolution from a transactional service to a trusted guide is the ultimate goal of strategic branding.

In my view, the i-Thrive logo design is a masterclass in modern brand building. Its success comes from a relentless focus on strategy and meaning. Every design element—from the arrow in the monogram to the energy of the color palette—is purposeful. It avoids fleeting trends in favor of timeless communication principles. This project serves as a powerful reminder that in the new era of wellness, a brand must not only look good but also stand for something meaningful.

All images © Holman Design. Feel free to browse WE AND THE COLOR’s Graphic Design and Branding categories for more.

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