Somatic Living

Seeking synergy with the audience Somatic Living wanted to reach, Big Human conducted user interviews with people who were familiar with online yoga classes and Peyrow’s existing students. This helped us identify key user-centric features that made for an effective online yoga class and components of Peyrow’s teachings that could be translated digitally. Part of Somatic Living’s appeal is Peyrow himself, who spent years learning from yogic teachers in India, so the goal was to preserve the essence of his in-person practices.

Somatic Living wanted its brand to avoid clichés and instead lean into the aesthetics and philosophies of ancient yogic art and artistic movements — pairing geometric shapes and graphical lines with the depth of Renaissance and Baroque paintings, textiles, and patterns. The golden ratio, representing the convergence of the spirit and mind, was our anchor; we leveraged it in everything from the typographic scale to the composition of Somatic Living’s photography.

The colors are derived from pigments used to paint artifacts like ancient mandalas and the Sistine Chapel, resulting in a color palette that’s rich and evocative. Its logo is a spiral, a concept that originated from “spirare,” the Latin word for “to breathe,” which is a key pillar of somatics. Somatic Living’s spiral has a stipple texture, evoking the tingling sensation often experienced after a yoga session.

Somatic Living is part guided practice, part somatics encyclopedia, so we gave the brand and website an editorial feel with an Art Nouveau-inspired typeface. Our designs included custom symbols for Soma’s four pillars (Monthly Sequence, Weekly Live Class, Foundations, and Collections), glyphs influenced by ancient runes, and stick figures that act as instructional depictions of yoga poses, which were adaptations of Peyrow’s original drawings.

While somatic therapy is a unique individual experience, real personal connection is formed by the teachers themselves. For Somatic Living to grow a thriving online community, Peyrow and Brown’s students stressed the importance of putting Peyrow front and center, with his personal philosophies and methodologies informing much of the platform’s content. 

Big Human coordinated a photo and video shoot at Peyrow and Brown’s home to ensure their in-person sessions were genuinely translated into tangible online experiences. The intimate setting made for a more authentic experience, one that brought users closer to their instructors and highlighted the value of Peyrow’s distinct teaching style. Our creative direction carries through all of Somatic Living’s digital classes, yoga videos, and animations.

Somatic Living’s website harks back to the editorial quality established during branding; it’s made to feel like a book or publication, with a parchment-colored background. Again informed by the golden ratio, we used a gridded system to lay out the content, ensuring compatibility with smaller screens.

Digital platforms that offer health and fitness classes often advocate for routine workouts, incentivizing users to reach their goals through streaks and rewards. But somatic healing is more about the journey of self-discovery, so Big Human and Somatic Living opted for limited features to focus on the teachings and keep the platform as accessible as possible for both existing students and those new to the practice.

Since Somatic Living recommends taking classes and following its four pillars in a specific sequence, the site’s navigation mimics the journey. Its Foundations page, a resource for somatic fundamentals, is also organized according to Peyrow and Brown’s suggested system. However, users can still engage with the teachings in any order and according to their personal needs. 

One of the website’s biggest UX considerations was Somatic Living’s single subscription tier. Before users sign up for a monthly membership that provides access to all of Somatic Living’s content, they can take advantage of a free seven-day trial, allowing them to explore curated collections and essential yoga classes.

Naturally, a website for online yoga classes and spiritual teachings houses various types of content, including foundational videos, live sessions, and blog posts. To accommodate such a large library, we custom-engineered the site on WordPress; the platform’s built-in content management system makes it easier for the Somatic Living team to organize and update their programs. Given the varied access to content based on the subscription tier, Big Human utilized MemberPress to streamline membership management and set up member-specific authorizations, with a seamless Stripe integration handling all payments.