Identity / Volume 02
Flow Therapy
Identity System
Issued May 2026
Vol. 02

flow
therapy.

"We don't do journeys. We do therapy. We answer the phone. We see clients on Tuesdays. That's the whole thing."

— Katie Thornton, LCSW · Founder
A small practicelicensed in eight states.
Brand GuidelinesHouston, TX · 2026.
— 01 / Essence

What we actually are.

There are enough therapy brands selling transformation. This isn't one of them.

Flow Therapy is a therapist-owned practice. Not a marketplace. Not a wellness app. Not a journey.

The founder is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who works Tuesdays through Saturdays. The clinicians on the team are real, licensed, named on the website, and reachable by phone. The waiting list is real. The pricing is published. The insurance verification is finished before the first session.

Most of what makes a therapy practice good is unglamorous: returning calls, getting the billing right, showing up on time, knowing when to refer out. The brand exists to communicate that we take the unglamorous parts seriously — and to filter for the kind of clients and clinicians who do too.

01.

Plainspoken.

Therapy doesn't need a vocabulary upgrade. We say "session," not "transformative experience." We say "$140," not "investment in yourself."

02.

Specific.

Names, hours, prices, license numbers, modalities. The brand prefers a real Tuesday to a beautifully vague forever.

03.

Confident.

We don't apologize for charging for therapy. We don't pretend to be free. We are a small business that wants to be paid for skilled work.

04.

Open.

Veterans. LGBTQ+ clients. Grieving parents. People who've never been in therapy. The door is wide; the brand never narrows it.

— 02 / The Mark

A wordmark.
Nothing more.

Most therapy logos are leaves, waves, or hands. We chose a clean wordmark instead — set in DM Sans, the same typeface that runs through the entire brand.

— 2.1 / Primary wordmark · plum on cream
flowtherapy
Minimum width 120px
— 2.2 / Reverse · cream on plum
flowtherapy
Dark applications
ft
— 2.3 / Monogram · plum
ft
— 2.4 / On wine
ft
— 2.5 / On cream
ft
— 2.6 / On lilac

One typeface.
One system.

The previous identity used a serif display face for the wordmark. The new system is built entirely in DM Sans — the same typeface used throughout the brand. The wordmark is set in semibold; the monogram in bold. Both lowercase, both unchanged in proportion.

The benefit is consistency. The wordmark on the homepage, the type on a business card, and the headline on a social post all use the same letters. The brand reads as one voice instead of a curated collage.

Set in DM Sans 600 for the wordmark and DM Sans 700 for the monogram. Always lowercase. Never set on a busy or photographic background.

— 03 / Color

A palette that doesn't apologize.

Deep plum carries the weight. Wine warms it. Lilac softens it. Amber catches the light. Cream holds the page.

— PRIMARY · 60% USAGE
Deep
Plum.
HEX   #2E1A3D
RGB   46 / 26 / 61
CMYK  76 / 96 / 32 / 51
Pantone   2695 C
— ACCENT · 20%
Wine.
HEX   #6B2C39
RGB   107 / 44 / 57
Pantone   7421 C
— FOUNDATION · 15%
Warm
Cream.
HEX   #F5F0E8
RGB   245 / 240 / 232
Pantone   9184 C
Lilac
#C9B8D9
Lilac Mist
#E8DDEF
Amber
#C9923D
Soft Amber
#E5BE8A
Bone
#FAF6EE
The previous bright purple read as "tech startup." The new plum is a different proposition entirely — closer to a library, a vintage bar, a leather-bound book. We kept the color family. We grew it up.
— 04 / Type

One typeface.
Five weights.

DM Sans, top to bottom. Hierarchy comes from weight and scale — not from mixing fonts.

— 4.1 / Display & Body
DM Sans.
A modern geometric sans-serif with a humanist warmth — the same family used by leading mental health platforms like Grow Therapy and Rula. Clear, friendly, and quietly confident. Used for everything: the wordmark, headlines, body copy, buttons, captions, navigation. One font does the whole job.
My dad died by suicide when I was sixteen. I had a therapist who didn't try to fix me — she just kept showing up.
Aa
300 · Light
Aa
400 · Regular
Aa
500 · Medium
Aa
600 · Semibold
Aa
700 · Bold
Display HeroDM Sans 64 / 500 / -3.5%
We don't do journeys. We do therapy.
Section HeadDM Sans 36 / 500 / -2.5%
It's just therapy. We don't need to make it complicated.
SubheadDM Sans 20 / 400
Free fifteen-minute consult. No pressure to book a second.
BodyDM Sans 16 / 400 / 1.65 leading
Katie Thornton, LCSW, is licensed in Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Maine, Nevada, Ohio, Texas, and Washington. EMDR-trained. Most major insurance accepted. Self-pay available.
EyebrowDM Sans 11 / 500 / 0.28em
— NOW ACCEPTING NEW CLIENTS
— 05 / Voice & Tone

How not to sound.

The brand has a list of words it doesn't use. The list is more important than any words it does use.

To clients.

The person reading might be having their worst week. Don't sell. Don't ladder. Don't perform empathy. Just open the door.

SAY
"You don't have to know what's wrong yet. Most people don't, when they first call."
NOT
"Unlock your best self with our AI-powered platform."
SAY
"The first session is fifteen minutes. It's free. If we're not a fit I'll tell you who is."
NOT
"Begin your healing journey today!"
SAY
"We charge $140 per hour. Most insurance covers it. We verify before your first session."

To therapists.

Clinicians can smell a recruiting pitch from across the room. We talk like a colleague who's done the work — because we have.

SAY
"Twice-monthly direct deposit. No clawbacks. The split is transparent before you sign."
NOT
"Join our mission-driven family of providers!"
SAY
"We handle credentialing, insurance verification, and the parts of EHR you hate."
NOT
"Empower your practice with cutting-edge synergy."
SAY
"Built by a therapist who got tired of calling insurance companies on a Friday afternoon."
— 06 / In the World

The brand at work.

A short library of applications — banners, social posts, business cards — to show how the system holds together across context.

07.
"We charge $140 and don't pretend it's a luxury."
08.
"You went to school for therapy. Not for billing."
— BUSINESS CARD · FRONT
ft
Katie Thornton
LCSW, EMDR · Founder
flowtherapy.com · Houston, TX
— 07 / Boundaries

Protecting the mark.

Three ways the identity breaks. Worth knowing in advance.

× ft

Don't place the mark on bright saturated purple. The new identity exists to leave that aesthetic behind. Use Deep Plum or Wine instead.

× ft

Don't substitute another typeface for DM Sans. No italic serifs, no script faces, no Helvetica fallback. One font, throughout.

× ft

Don't recolor the mark outside the published palette. Teals, mints, and warm pinks belong to other brands.