The word "Zen-ish" in large white text on a black background, with the phrase "Mindfulness, Unhinged" in smaller white text below.
A white hoodie with purple and pink accents, featuring the word "Zen-ish" embroidered on the chest. The left sleeve has a pattern of pink and blue squiggles, and the interior of the hood is purple.
A pair of sweatpants with one side white and the other side patterned with pink and blue squiggly lines, featuring an elastic waistband and a pocket with a purple accent. The word "Zen-ish" is embroidered in pink on the white side.

A mindfulness app for people who roll their eyes at mindfulness apps

A digital moodboard containing various illustrations, quotes, and graphics focused on mental health, mindfulness, and self-care. Includes images of happy faces, calm individuals, motivational quotes, and cartoon characters.
Three images of diverse individuals holding objects: a woman with curly hair holding a smartphone on a stabilizer, a woman holding a white mug with the text "Sometimes good moms say bad words," and a man with dark curly hair holding a tattoo gun. The background is maroon with white text describing different personality types.
A purple background with various words related to tone and personality, such as Honest, Patient, Humorous, Edgy, Persistent, and Tenacious, displayed in different sizes and colors.
A large vertical poster in an indoor setting with white tiled walls and an escalator nearby. The poster features colorful abstract shapes and promotes a mindfulness app called Zen-ish, encouraging users to silence their inner demons for at least five minutes. It also mentions downloading the app from the app store with a QR code.

The Team

Joey Roditis - a phenomenal illustrator, motion & brand vision designer

Brian Barazza - a UX/UI wizard & systems thinker

Myself - a brand voice & vision designer

The Brief

Create a mindfulness app that resonates with people who need mindfulness—but are kind of over it.

We wanted to explore what happens when you strip away the pastel wellness clichés and build something that embraces the mess, sarcasm, and chaos of modern life.

The deliverables included:

  • App concept

  • Brand voice guidelines

  • Sample meditation scripts

  • Class presentation

The Problem

How do you make mindfulness accessible to people who find it cringe?

Most mindfulness apps promise inner peace. We promised realistic expectations…and a bit of dark humor. We knew our users weren’t looking for spiritual awakening. They just wanted five minutes of calm without being told to “just smile more.”

Our Audience

Think: Burnt-out creatives. Cynical millennials.

Chronically online. Therapy-fatigued.

People who:

  • Meditate, but only when things get really bad

  • Like memes more than mantras

  • Are allergic to toxic positivity

Voice & Tone Strategy

We started with a key question I posed to the team via Slack:

“Does Zen-ish use

A. Humor

B. Subtle humor

C. Adult humor

D. Dark humor? Or...

F. All of the above?”

That sparked a full brand voice workshop where we aligned on our tone:
Deceptively calm visuals + dark, ironic copy.

Our brand personality:

Liquid Death meets Headspace. We call it “chaotic Zen.”

Copy Development

I used ChatGPT as a creative partner to brainstorm and test tones. We landed on three voice lanes:

Playfully Cynical:
 “Breathe in. Breathe out. Still dead inside? Same.”

Darkly Comedic:
 “Mindfulness. Because screaming into the void isn’t socially acceptable.”

Anti-Toxic Positivity:
 “Even though Capitalism disagrees, you are enough.”

Guided Meditation: “Accept the Chaos”

I wrote and voiced a sample guided meditation script using subtle humor and real relaxation cues:

“Let’s start by taking a deep breath in… and out. Good. You did it. The bare minimum.”
 “Relax your shoulders. Unclench your jaw. And your butthole. Just let everything loose.”
 “Wiggle your fingers. And your toes. Consider wiggling your way out of that existential crisis.”

The result was a calm, relatable experience… with just enough bite to cut through the wellness fog.

Reflection

At this point, I should tell you my undergrad degree is from Naropa University, where I had a full semester of Foundations of Meditation. I’ve experienced the benefits AND I have chaotic friends who want the benefits too but are over the “fluffy stuff”.

This was an exercise in brand voice innovation and perception.

Meditation can include humor, laughter, and reality checks.

Zen-ish proved that as I got to watch my class of 15 close their eyes to relax, and laugh out loud at the word “butthole”.

I learned how to:

  • Facilitate tone alignment in a team setting

  • Use humor as a UX tool

  • Balance calm with chaos, irony with empathy

  • Build something memorable and human without being cliché

Key takeaway:

Voice is a BIG part of the user experience.

And sometimes, a memorable brand tone is just the tiniest bit unhinged.