Case Study · Brand Identity & Website

Sanctuary Dance Academy

The logo The identity The icons The photography Website

A faith-based classical ballet studio in Harriman, Tennessee. Christen McCuiston taught ballet for twenty-one years before she opened a studio of her own. She was carrying all of it. Director, teacher, the one sourcing the new space and getting it ready, building the website in Wix, advertising in Canva. She already had a look she loved, it just lived in pieces. So I took the parts that were hers and made them a brand. Custom iconography, golden-hour photography, and the website it all lives on. Now the site feels like walking into the studio.

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The logo

One logo, three postures.

The logo was Sanctuary's already. Not my design. What I did was break the ballerina out of it so she could stand on her own as an icon.

A horizontal lockup for the formal moments, a stacked arch for the sacred ones, and the standalone ballerina for everywhere a logo has to live small. Profile photos, embroidery on a leotard, the corner of a recital program.

The identity

A brand, written down.

Color and type any employee in the building can hand off, so Sanctuary still looks like Sanctuary long after the project ends.

Colour

I pulled this palette from the studio Christen designed and from the golden-hour and stage photos I shot inside it, so it holds both sides of Sanctuary. The soft, feminine ballet light in studio, and the stage lights from recital night. Cream and dusty rose off the new walls and floors, the warm gold of the sunset session, the deep plum from the stage.

CreamF5EDE2

Cream WarmEDE2D2

RoseD9A6A6

Rose DeepB07178

Rose Deeper8E5862

BlushEBC9C5

Sage9DA88E

Sage Deep7C8A6F

PampasC9A876

ClayA85A3E

Plum3D2A35

Plum Deep291A22

Typography

Display · Cormorant GaramondWhere worship begins.

Body · Inter TightA place set apart for the dancer, the family, and the gift.

Script · Alluraa sanctuary

See it in action

The icons

Fifteen icons that move like a dancer.

A custom continuous-line set, built to match the hand-drawn feel of the logo. Light and delicate, elegant the way a dancer is. A rose motif carries through several of them, the envelope's seal, the chapel's vine, the calendar's corner, so the whole set reads as one studio.

The photography

Movement, not portraiture.

A brand shoot and recital coverage, both shot on location. The dancers had to read as figures in worship, not subjects of a headshot. Christen wanted it to feel like they were frolicking in a field, bathed in sunlight. Every soft edge and burst of lens flare is on the page on purpose.

Dancer in deep rose tutu at golden hour, arms raised

Dancer in red tutu silhouetted at golden hour

Sanctuary dancer on stage under warm recital lighting

Sanctuary dancers on stage during the spring recital

A line of Sanctuary dancers on stage under stage lights

Brand and recital photography by Samantha Alsmo for Traveling Wave Design Co.

View the full gallery →

★★★★★

This is my dream website and I am so excited about it. I love the way everything is laid out, from the class schedule to the forms, and the dress code page is exactly what I have always wanted. She even took the time to photograph our studio and truly captured the heart of who we are. Traveling Wave Design Co. is such a blessing to us.

Christen McCuiston, Founder of Sanctuary Dance Academy

Christen McCuiston Founder & Director, Sanctuary Dance Academy

You built the business.
Let's build the brand to match.

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