Cultural Identity as Creative Direction: Inside the House of Paz Project
- Flore Thevoux
- Aug 4
- 4 min read
A few times a year, depending on capacity, I take on select branding projects for purpose-driven small businesses. What they may lack in budget, they more than make up for in depth and passion.
I only say yes when three things are true:
Their business brings much-needed support, guidance, or resources to their immediate community.
Starting this business is a lifelong dream.
They feel deeply connected to their work and are living their calling through it.
House of Paz, created by Sahar Paz, is one of these projects.
Sahar Paz is an internationally-recognized Iranian-American public speaker, published author, and stage 4 breast cancer survivor.
Her work on personal branding, emotionally intelligent storytelling, and cross‑generational communication led her to speaking engagements with HBO, Facebook, Whole Foods, and the Texas Medical Center.
Healing yourself from breast cancer is no small feat.
As Sahar shared with me her story, tears streamed down my face. Before me stood a woman who had conquered odds that claimed the lives of several women I’ve known.
She initially arrived to the United States as a refugee of war.
After decades spent empowering women to reclaim their voices, she found herself forced to listen more deeply to her own. When allopathic medicine failed her, she turned inward, reconnecting with her body’s intuition, ancestral wisdom, and life's purpose. She experienced first-hand the lack of research on women’s bodies, especially women of color, and as a result, donated her remaining breast to science.
Out of this journey came House of Paz: a platform for holistic health, patient advocacy, and radical self-trust.
When a brand becomes a vessel for ancestral memory
Sahar wanted the brand to speak to survivors, healers, and those seeking reconnection with their intuition. Her initial creative direction centered gold sacred geometry symbols, a common aesthetic I had seen in the holistic health & wellness space.
After sharing stories over Iranian tea in her home, I guided her through a deep meditation. Her dog Rico fell asleep on my lap. When Sahar emerged, she described a vivid vision: an intricately carved Islamic door—like the entrance to a palace or mosque.
She rushed to grab a silver vase from her homeland and a large coffee table book on Islamic art. As we flipped through pages saturated with history and reverence, we knew the brand needed to shift.
After a lifetime spent disconnected from her cultural identity, it would be a powerful reclamation to embrace it through the House of Paz brand.
Mysticism, Memory, & Mosaics
Clean design alone wasn’t going to cut it. This project required cultural sensitivity, historical awareness, and emotional fluency. We had to figure out how to communicate her cultural roots without coming off as religious (she does not practice or preach Islam).
Sahar had already selected a color palette, font system, and base logo. Jegayo was brought in to evolve the identity and bring the website to life.
The process included:
Creative kickoff & strategy sync
Brand Heart Workbook to collect key language & values
Market and competitor audit
Page mapping and site architecture
Custom copywriting guidelines
Illustration direction and sourcing
Subtle logo refinements for scalability
Creation of visual brand assets
Full Squarespace site design & build
Islamic art requires a level of precision and patience I didn’t have space for at the time. To honor this limitation, I used a found-art collage approach, sourcing royalty-free illustrations and layering them into new forms.
One of my favorite moments on the site is a mosaic reveal effect in the hero section. As you move your cursor, it acts like a flashlight, revealing the geometry beneath the words. The subtle shift in color enhances the message rather than overwhelming it, drawing the viewer in for an added sense of wonder. Like entering a temple, not everything is revealed at once.
Together, we built a world and co-created system designed to carry her story forward with dignity and beauty.
Lessons learned
Every project teaches me something about refining my studio’s operations. This one highlighted the need for clearer systems and better expectation-setting.
We had a few miscommunications that could have been avoided. The experience led to key improvements in how we onboard and support clients:
Gaging early on what level of involvement clients want in the creative process
Including meeting prep check-ins and post-call recaps to reduce misalignment
Actively encouraging open and honest dialogue throughout the process.
Establishing clear expectations around time & energy investment for smaller clients.
To do this work correctly involves a great deal of trust.
Sahar’s audience has responded beautifully to the brand. House of Paz now exists as a digital sanctuary — elegant, informed, and distinctly hers. She's currently growing into her niche and refining her offerings as she navigates her own healing journey while running multiple businesses.
Projects like this are a reminder that branding is deeply personal work. When culture, healing, and ancestral culture are involved, a whole other level of listening is required. Here, we hold the nuance and build something that can carry meaning long after the launch.
How does your culture’s history and heritage shape the way you live and work? You can share your thoughts on our newsletter's Substack.
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