VIA FORMA VIA FORMA
SPIRITUAL FORMATION RESOURCES

A visual language for the inner life.

Via Forma occupies an interesting space: rooted in ancient spiritual wisdom, but decidedly forward-looking; thoughtful without becoming overly academic; welcoming without losing the complexity of the ideas.

Working closely with founder Danielle Shroyer from Via Forma’s earliest stages, I helped shape the brand as it was taking form, how it would look, and how it could organize and express a new body of work. The process started with listening: understanding what Danielle was building, who it was for, and what she hoped the work might do in the lives of the people who encounter it.

From there, the identity became a flexible visual language: an expansive color palette, clear typography, expressive graphic elements, illustration, and a system capable of moving comfortably between books, digital resources, teaching materials, events, promotion, and whatever Via Forma might become next. Along the way, the work also touched positioning, hierarchy, product architecture, and the practical decisions required to make a growing body of resources feel like parts of the same whole.

The goal was never to make spirituality look “spiritual,” or to impose a polished design layer over ideas that were already rich enough on their own. It was to give Via Forma a visual world that felt true to the substance of the work: generous, curious, intelligent, contemporary, and open to people both inside and outside traditional faith communities.

That approach extended to Via Forma’s online brand standards. Rather than creating a static PDF rulebook, I designed a living digital resource that makes the identity easier to understand, use, and grow. It brings together the brand’s foundational thinking, visual language, assets, and practical guidance in one place—giving collaborators enough structure to create consistency without making the system feel rigid.

Danielle describes the collaboration this way:

“Rather than treating design like a decoration, he begins by listening to the heart and soul of the project, and then builds from there.”

She adds that the work goes beyond visual design into “language, positioning, hierarchy, product architecture, and the overall experience”—an especially meaningful description to me, because that is how I think about the work myself.

Via Forma has become a creative system built to give a thoughtful body of ideas a recognizable form, while leaving plenty of room as those ideas keep growing.