Here’s why a lotus flower is the worst logo you could choose for your yoga business.
Every time I see a yoga or wellness business using a lotus flower logo a little bit of me absolutely dies inside. Then I facepalm.
It honestly in my opinion is the worst logo you could choose. Followed by a yoga figure. Or a combination of the two.
You deserve SO much better for your business!
You’ll know if you’ve read my other blogs, or followed me on Instagram that I categorically never design logos with lotus flowers, yoga asana (poses) or any cliche wellness industry visuals in them. My preference is always for totally unique visuals that no one else is using.
Let’s take a deep dive into branding and why this logo choice is totally at odds with the purpose of branding.
What is branding?
Branding doesn’t equal a logo. It’s actually far more compelling than a logo in absolute isolation.
Branding is defined as:
“A brand is a name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers” (American Marketing Association).
You can distill this into a way to set you apart in your customer/target audience’s eyes from other providers offering the same services as you. In other words - so you don’t look like other yoga teachers or wellbeing professionals.
The key word in this sentence is DISTINCT. i.e. unique, looks different and differentiates you from other people in your sector.
If that’s why branding exists, then why the fuck do so many yoga businesses have essentially the exact same logo?
It’s just totally against what the actual point is. You shouldn’t look like everyone else. So don’t use the same visuals as everyone else.
The issue with looking the same as everyone from a wellness perspective
We’ve all seen some variation of this logo many many times. Sometimes it’s a flower on its own, sometimes it’s a figure on its own…. it’s all singing the exact same song.
When the reality is every yoga teacher is totally different.
I’d say in the region of 50-60% of the accounts who follow me on Instagram (around 500 or so) have a variation of this exact logo as their branding.
The problem comes when we think about HOW people perceive yoga.
Yoga and the wellness industry has a big image problem - people think its for thin, white, bendy people not for everyone and often these businesses use visuals like the one on the left here.
We don’t help that perception when all we do is select the same tired visuals time and time again, that reinforce stereotypes and don’t do anything to visually set our own unique lenses apart.
Logos and visuals like this make it really hard for students and clients to see how you differ from that perception they have in their mind, or from their previous potentially bad experiences.
A logo doesn’t need to be literal. It needs to be usable.
The other side of this is the perception that a logo “has to show what you do”. It doesn’t.
A logo is there to give an impression, a feel and a vibe - it doesn’t need to be a literal image of what you do. It shouldn’t be either.
Trying to shoehorn loads of different elements into a logo leads to complicated, fussy logos that aren’t practical to use in the real world.
Have you ever seen a yoga teacher’s website with a massive menu bar with the logo at a huge size?
This “has to show what you do” mentality leads to this exact issue. The logo isn’t usable, because it is too detailed and fussy to have at a small size. It would look like a smudge. So they are then forced into making other compromises that then make everything look like amateur hour, less professional which then affects their earnings directly because they haven’t got their shit together.
The best logos are simple, and use shapes, colour and references to create that impression.
Let’s take my logo as an example:
This is a pretty simple concept.
The main element is a lioness who is roaring lightning bolts.
Am I a lioness that shoots lightning bolts out of my mouth? Obviously not. Although, that would be cool as.
I work with strong females (you could say lionesses) who need to shout about the work they do (lightning bolts) and step into their power. Again, you could say a lioness is a great representation of that mindset and power.
As a side note, I also love cats and I am a Leo. So lots of layers and meaning in there in a simple package that works at every size.
It can be suggestive and communicate an idea, mood or feel so people capture that additional information easily and physically see that you are different and your approach isn’t the misconception they have in their head. That immediately creates differentiation in a subconscious way, which is exactly what you want.
everyone is an expert (not)
Canva, Fiverr & lazy designers doing jobs on the cheap aren’t doing us any favours here either.
Before I get started laying into Canva here, I love Canva. I use it to create social graphics for With Pride Creative and also templates for my branding clients too. It’s a great tool to use for accessible collateral - the design pieces that are deployed in the real world. It just is not the tool to use for logo suites.
My issue with Canva is it makes everyone think they’re an expert… so they often just pick up a template, pop their name on it and call it a day. That is the literal worst thing you can do when it comes to branding and logos.
These templates are always going to be generic and not unique - they’re mass market designs. Anything there is literally being used by thousands upon thousands of businesses out there. They’re often very dated, totally unusable (see my previous point about fussy design & impracticality).
Your customers will 100% have seen some of these logos being used by hairdressers, florists, masseuses, therapists, beauticians and so on. So they absolutely know you’ve used a template which just comes across as cheap and an unwillingness to invest in your business. How can you be asking them to invest in your service when you won’t invest in yourself? That is what those customers are thinking. Harsh but true. It alters how they see your business and also what they are prepared to pay for your services.
You would never be able to use a Canva logo and trademark it, for example. They own the Intellectual Property of ALL premium elements; so you cannot register it - you have to own the Intellectual Property and Copyright of any logo design that you register.
It’s also pretty limited as a drag and drop tool what you can create within the software in comparison to a professional tool like Adobe Illustrator.
Plus, your file resolution and size options are incredibly limited to JPEGs & PNGs, not vector files and the conversion from digital colour spaces to a print colour profile is notoriously unreliable.
My other pet peeve is Fiverr/designers cutting corners, and praying on business owners with very limited budgets.
These designers and resources aren’t designing with care or bothering to do the basic groundwork a legit brand designer would always do - they don’t do any industry research or understand the nuances within the industry they are designing for… so they lazily churn out cliche design like these lotus flower logos.
This drives me mental as it is essentially wasted money down the drain for that independent teacher who was trying to do the right thing and has ended up with something totally unusable or that doesn’t position them correctly so they’re losing out on even more money.
I’ve experienced this personally so many times - a client will have hired someone from Fiverr, paid them £250 or so, they’ve got a logo and no colour palettes, positioning, visual guidance, tone guidance or understanding how to deploy anything they’ve been given, end up attracting totally the wrong crowd, get discouraged and downcast and then need to pay again to have their brand suite done properly, again.
It’s worth saying I absolutely understand budget can be the issue with committing to work like this. My view as a brand strategist, designer and business coach is this:
Branding, coaching or anything you spend like photography costs are literally costs of being in business. These things make you more money, categorically.
Properly designed branding can add up to 23% on your revenue without changing anything. I’ve personally had clients land magazine covers, sell out international yoga retreats and more after investing in their branding. I’ve doubled and doubled my own revenue again over the past 2 years. So my own experience has been significantly more than that 23%.
The basic principle of business is maximising your returns on your investments. So, you price your services accordingly and budget for that investment.
When I started my first business Pride Yoga, I set aside £1500 to invest in my website, branding, some photography and equipment to get me started - granted I did some of it myself as I had the skills, however, I made my investment back within the first month.
As a side note: this is why I offer a couple of different branding packages with different levels of deliverables so there are options to suit you and you still get a suite that you can use for years to come. It is far better to save for a bit, or have a chat and sort an extended payment plan out and get the job done properly first time, instead of scrimping and getting a half arsed job that needs doing again instead.
branding is there to position you as the go-to person for your audience. that takes strategy.
I talk about it quite frequently on the blog but I will mention it again here; everything has to start with your audience - knowing them deeply, what their problems are, how they want to improve their lives, what their aspirations are, what their drive is.
Then your branding should be speaking to those motivations and bringing that to life and understanding how that story can be translated visually and subconsciously when your audience come across you.
if you’re not an expert, then that’ll be pretty effing hard to do.
Your brand visuals are there to set yourself and your business apart from everyone else in the wellness space. Your classes and offer is totally different to everyone else’s and flows from your unique experiences and viewpoint of the world of wellness.
That is why using a lotus flower is the worst thing you can do.
If that’s you, it’s time to consider taking a look at your branding. If you would like a review of what you’ve already got a Brand Audit would be a fantastic place to start. If you’re ready to crack on full steam ahead, a branding package would be perfect. If you’re after more free tips, check out my instagram or get on my Thursday newsletter.
