Meet the business
Some spas have a good year, Macquarie Medi Spa has had twenty of them (in a row). Nestled in Bathurst and renowned nationally, it runs more than 30 advanced facial treatments, over 20 styles of massage and body rituals, a retail floor carrying 20+ premium brands and a team of 12 therapists backed by a visiting doctor, cosmetic nurse, laser technician and cosmetic tattooist. Dayuuum, that’s a boutique luxury skin clinic and a full-service medical spa (and it’s still not the most impressive thing about the place).
The most impressive thing is the woman running it. Karla McDiarmid is one of the industry’s most respected educators, known for developing some of Australia’s top therapists and her spa gives back the way it books out. Think; hospitals, homelessness initiatives and more community sponsorships than anyone’s counted. Skill and soul under the same roof.
The moment
Twenty years at the top will do something predictable, everyone behind you can see exactly where you’re standing. In Karla’s words, “I want to be known as the destination for skin and beauty in central west NSW. We’ve been there and achieved that but now I am looking towards the future generations and it’s time to jump forward again and refresh with fabulous brand new ideas and branding!”
The timing carried weight, too. The spa was rebuilding after COVID hit it harder than most and Karla’s magic-wand wish was two words with the caps lock still warm… modernise it, EVOLVE. Not so much a reinvention, more like a jump forward. Think 13 Going on 30, except she keeps all twenty years of the wisdom.
What was really going on
We discovered that Macquarie Medi Spa was about legacy (where the business has been, where it is now and where it’s going). Karla built a name the whole region recognises and the work’s job was to take that past and translate it into the present, modernised for the next generation of Bathurst and beyond. What we read in the brand was timeless and effortless in feel (and extremely serious underneath), serious care, serious compassion, serious results.
There’s one thing about Karla that tells you everything about what had to be protected. Her husband lives in Sydney, she lives in Bathurst and they commute to spend time together, so moving has never once been on the table, because that’s how much Karla loves her community, and playing a key role in it is a cornerstone of Macquarie Medi Spa. You don’t redesign around devotion like that, you build it baked into the brand.
So the glow up had a double duty, carry the whole legacy forward and give it the VIP experience that Karla insists on a visual language to match it.
"Sarah created many wonderful & inspiring designs for several of my businesses. I have no hesitation in recommending Digital Bloom to every business owner."
The discovery
We uncovered a founder who fell into business ownership young and turned it into a calling. Her purpose now runs on education (for her team and her clients), on helping others and on giving back and her spa’s values read like her own… trust, respect, education, community, loyalty, professionalism and positivity. Her emotional promise to every guest fits in one line of hers, ‘love the skin you are in’.
The who came through in champagne-sharp detail. Her guests are professional women, largely 40 to 55, family-first, travel-loving, time-poor and willing to try anything as long as it works. Hundreds of them are VIPs who come precisely because the experience is private and five-star. And Karla’s ambition points younger too, she wants the 35-year-olds walking in the same doors, with MMS as, in her phrase, the ‘Mecca of Bathurst’.
Which set the brief the visuals had to hit, luxurious and elegant, serious and safe, high-end without a whisper of pretension, a spa where the expectation is excellence and the feeling is welcome.
Behind the name
Karla gave it honestly. “I was quite young so the name was already in the business. It’s a strong local name so I would do it very differently if I could start again!” She’d even love to change it (and she’s the first to say it’s too late for that, because everyone knows MMS).
That’s precisely why the name stayed. Twenty years of brand equity baked into those three words and the region says them the way locals say a landmark. The name Karla wouldn’t choose today is the name worth keeping today, the glow up’s job was to make it look like the future instead of the past, but honour the journey to get here.
Behind the logo
First, the definition that shaped everything. A rebrand starts over, whereas a glow up carries everything forward. This engagement was the second kind, deliberately fresh enough to feel new, familiar enough that twenty years of recognition never skips a beat.
The final palette landed as black, white and gold. Black and white hold the structure… timeless, high-contrast, deadly serious about standards. The gold is the finishing touch (and it knows exactly how much of itself to use), foiled details, fine moments, the way a single pearl reads as more luxurious than a strand. Less is more is the whole trick of elegance and this palette performs it.
The logo type shipped in sans serif… clean, modern and timeless, luxe with zero unnecessary flourish. The balance the concepts chased still lives in the letterforms, structure in the straight strokes, flow in the curves, because no two guests, no two journeys and no two skins are ever the same. And read the M as a guest’s visit in miniature, she walks in one state, moves through a plan she trusts and walks out transformed, sometimes physically, but always emotionally.
The supporting graphics went hand-drawn, a suite of spa illustrations with a dainty, freehand touch, pairing timeless luxuriousness with a down-to-earth welcome. Blown up and framed they’d hang like gallery pieces. Working through highlight covers, templates and collateral they do a quieter job, reminding every touchpoint that this is a high-end space run by warm humans.
The system
Full visual rebrand
The logo overhauled and built into a complete suite of variations, fonts, colours and imagery.
Visual style guidelines
Defining the application rules of the brand’s look and feel.
A suite of illustrations and graphic elements throughout
Social media Canva templates for launch and day-to-day use
Creative direction for styling graphics across multiple platforms, keeping the vision and the aesthetics consistent
"Her creativity, passion & professionalism makes her a delight to work with."
The outcomes
The glow up is fresh, so this section holds only what’s true and grows as the results do.
The season now
Karla’s horizon reads exactly like her. Grow again. Expand further. Be known Australia-wide, which MMS already is (and get back out there more). Her ten-year answer came with the caps lock on: WE changed lives, we helped our entire community.
And her legacy answer is the shortest, truest line in our whole discovery phase, “we cared!” Two words that twenty years of guests would co-sign without being asked. If your business has spent decades earning its name and the brand is the only thing still standing in an earlier era, a groundwork call is where the jump forward starts. 🌸