Creative direction, branding, and design for a women’s health startup that’s actually made for women
TiaYear:
2016-2020Role(s):
Creative direction, branding, graphic design, UI/UX design, copywriting, design consulting
Tia
N.B.—Tia has since been rebranded by my former colleagues at Athletics, who retained much of the original DNA as they evolved the branding to reflect the company’s growth and shifting focus.
The "party chat with a former colleague -> multi-year branding project" pipeline is one of the oldest New York City institutions, and this is one of those. Carolyn Witte was launching a company based on a lack of healthcare for women by women (and hence, understanding women)—experienced firsthand as she attempted to address some health issues of her own. Tia's brand emerged exactly like in the movies—as the vague connection between cryptic snippets on whiteboards, post-its, and shared docs, until we (Caro, Katie Suskin, Masa Tanaka, and myself) sat down together and started sketching it out. It was 2016, so to begin with we were talking about (and to) a chatbot app.
We landed on a very flexible branding package of a logotype, some "motifs" (aka "the ladies") based on the non-specificity of incomplete Greek statues but updated to reflect the diversity of contemporary body positivity, and a very non-medical color palette, pattern set, and typography standards. I'm not saying we were first with the (now popular) "blob" aesthetic, but I can tell you with certainty that we were ahead enough of the curve that a fair number of people weren't sure about it to begin with. From day one Tia was colorful, curvy, and personable.
All along, the plan was that Tia would start from a chatbot and grow into a complete care paradigm, manifesting across a variety of digital and physical implementations. After the initial branding package, I worked closely with Carolyn (and Felicity, Allie and the ever-expanding team) on anything from UX for the app and the eventual office screen to Womens' March collateral and some pretty explicit graphics (hey—all in a days' work).
It was very surreal to see the first physical Tia Clinic open in NYC, and an honor to play a part in the realization of that dream. In the hands of the now full-time design team the Tia aesthetic has evolved a ton since day one, but many of the initial components are still present. The core idea of holistic healthcare that really gets women hasn't changed—and there are physical clinics in New York, LA and Phoenix.
Learn more: asktia.com