I had the privilege of working with Shelby Santin, a Certified Eating Disorder Specialist (CEDS) and anti-diet Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, to create her complete brand identity and custom WordPress website. This project became one of my most meaningful collaborations, as it involved crafting a brand that would help people heal their relationship with food and find joy in eating again.
When Shelby first approached me, she wasn’t just another nutritionist looking for a logo. She was a passionate professional with a clear mission: to provide weight-inclusive, compassionate nutrition care that helps clients break free from diet culture and eating disorders. Her Italian family background had taught her that food is love, connection, and joy – values that had become central to her therapeutic approach.
The challenge was creating a brand that would feel safe and welcoming to people who had been hurt by traditional diet culture, while also establishing credibility in the healthcare space. We needed to communicate warmth and healing without falling into wellness clichés, and create a visual identity that felt both professional and approachable.
Before touching any design software, I spent considerable time understanding Shelby’s vision, values, and the people she serves. Through our discovery sessions, several key insights emerged:
The Mission: To provide compassionate nutrition care that helps people heal their relationship with food and body, enabling them to be present in all the positive moments life has to offer.
The Vision: A world without weight stigma, with better eating disorder treatment that’s weight-inclusive and offers earlier detection for ALL bodies.
Core Values:
What struck me most was Shelby’s emphasis on client autonomy. Unlike traditional medical models where the provider dictates treatment, Shelby’s approach centers on the belief that “you are the expert of your own body.” This philosophy would become central to how we positioned her brand.
Through our strategic work, we identified Shelby’s brand archetype as “The Caregiving Everyperson” – a unique blend of the Caregiver and Everyman archetypes. This combination perfectly captured her approach:
This archetype informed everything from her tone of voice (casual but professional, optimistic, with gentle humor) to her content strategy and visual direction.
We identified Shelby’s ideal clients as adults and adolescents in eating disorder recovery or those struggling with their relationship with food. These individuals were:
Understanding their customer journey – from discovery through Google searches or provider referrals, to engagement through newsletters and educational content, to purchasing services and ultimately becoming advocates – helped us create touchpoints that would feel supportive at every stage.
The visual direction needed to immediately communicate safety, warmth, and healing. I developed a palette and aesthetic inspired by:
Color Psychology:
Visual Elements:
For Shelby’s logo, I created multiple variations to work across different applications:
Primary Logo: Clean, classic typography with “shelby santin” in a custom serif font and “nutrition counseling” in elegant italics below. The simplicity ensured readability while the typography choices conveyed professionalism with warmth.
Secondary Logo: Featured a beautiful hummingbird icon – a symbol of joy, healing, and the ability to find sweetness in life. The bird was enclosed in a gentle circle, representing wholeness and the cyclical nature of healing.
Alternative Options: Included text-only versions and standalone icons for social media and favicon use.
The hummingbird became a powerful brand symbol because it perfectly represented Shelby’s mission of helping clients “find joy in food and life again.”
Developing Shelby’s brand voice was crucial, as she would be speaking to people in vulnerable states. We crafted guidelines that were:
Enthusiastic, but not over the top: Genuine excitement about recovery without toxic positivity Casual, but not unprofessional: Friendly and accessible while maintaining clinical credibility Inclusive and trauma-informed: Carefully avoiding language that could be triggering or exclusionary
We created a comprehensive “words we don’t use” list, avoiding terms like “crazy,” “obsessed,” or any form of weight-based language that could be harmful. Instead, we focused on empowerment language around autonomy, healing, growth, and connection.
The content strategy centered on three pillars:
We planned content for both macro platforms (blog, email newsletter, local events) and micro platforms (Pinterest for reach and discovery).
Building Shelby’s custom WordPress website required careful attention to user experience, particularly for visitors who might be struggling with food and body image issues. Key considerations included:
Homepage Design: Immediately communicated safety and hope with warm visuals, clear messaging about weight-inclusive care, and an easy path to booking a discovery call.
About Page: Told Shelby’s story authentically, highlighting her Italian family background and journey to eating disorder specialization, helping visitors feel connected to her personally.
Services Pages: Clearly explained her approach to adolescent ED recovery, adult ED recovery, and chronic dieting recovery without overwhelming visitors with clinical jargon.
Resource Section: Provided valuable educational content that demonstrated expertise while offering immediate value to visitors.
Accessibility Features: Ensured the site was fully accessible, with proper contrast ratios, alt text for images, and intuitive navigation – particularly important for a healthcare provider.
I chose WordPress for its flexibility and Shelby’s future content management needs. The custom build included:
The brand launch extended beyond the website to create a complete ecosystem:
Print Materials: Business cards, brochures, and office signage that reinforced the warm, professional brand Social Media Templates: Consistent visual templates for Instagram and Pinterest that maintained brand cohesion Email Newsletter Design: Branded templates that felt like receiving a note from a trusted friend Brand Guidelines: Comprehensive documentation ensuring consistent application across all touchpoints
While typical brand metrics like website traffic and social media engagement were important, the real success of Shelby’s brand became evident in other ways:
This project taught me several valuable lessons about branding in the healthcare and wellness space:
Authenticity Over Aesthetics: While the visual design was important, the authentic communication of values and approach was what truly resonated with Shelby’s audience.
Language Matters Deeply: In spaces dealing with trauma and recovery, every word choice impacts how safe someone feels. The time invested in developing inclusive, empowering language was crucial.
Brand as Therapy Tool: For Shelby’s clients, the brand itself became part of the therapeutic experience – a consistent reminder that they were in a safe, judgment-free space.
Long-term Vision: Building a brand that could grow with Shelby’s practice, from solo practitioner to potential team leader, required strategic thinking about scalability.
Brand and website development doesn’t end at launch, and my relationship with Shelby continued beyond the initial project. We’ve made updates to reflect her growing expertise, added new service offerings, and refined messaging based on client feedback.
The brand has supported Shelby’s growth from a solo practitioner to someone ready to build a team, with plans for group services, workshops, and expanded educational offerings. The flexible brand architecture we created has accommodated this growth while maintaining the core values and aesthetic that clients love.
Working with Shelby reminded me why I’m passionate about brand strategy and design. When done thoughtfully, branding becomes more than marketing – it becomes a tool for positive change in the world.
Shelby’s brand helps people recognize that they deserve compassionate, weight-inclusive care. It challenges diet culture messaging and offers hope to those who have been harmed by traditional approaches to nutrition and health. Every person who feels safe enough to reach out for help because of how the brand made them feel represents a life potentially changed.
This project reinforced my belief that great branding starts with deep strategy, honors the audience’s needs above all else, and creates consistency that builds trust over time. For practitioners like Shelby who are doing important healing work in the world, the brand becomes a bridge – connecting their mission with the people who need their help most.
If you’re a healthcare provider or wellness professional looking to create a brand that truly serves your mission and attracts your ideal clients, I’d love to hear about your work. Reach out to discuss how strategic branding and thoughtful design can amplify your impact.
Courtney Vickery, MS, RD, LD is a marketing and wellness strategist with 15+ years of experience in WordPress web design, workflow optimization, and client experience strategy.
She has served in leadership roles as a Director of Corporate Health Services, Group Fitness Program Manager, and Lead Wellness Dietitian, and built her own private practice, Vickery Wellness.
Courtney also has an extensive academic background. At the University of Georgia, she taught undergraduate nutrition courses, served as Interim Director of the Dietetic Internship, and continues to teach as needed.
She is a proud UGA alum, holding:
MS/DI in Foods & Nutrition
BS in Dietetics
BA in Political Science
With her unique blend of academic expertise, leadership experience, and design-driven strategy, Courtney helps professionals and organizations improve their systems, websites, and client experiences with clarity and confidence.
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