Case study
Business branding – Specialist Fitness
I was initially approached by Personal Trainer and company Director, Marcus Tolley in 2008 to develop a branding solution and visual identity for promotional purposes. There was a clear need to create a strong presence in the market in order to attract new client interest. With many years experience in the fitness industry, and a high loyalty rate with current clients, Marcus was focussed on expanding his business.
The final design solution needed to be flexible and dynamic in order to be carried across a broad range of promotional materials to be used in future advertising campaigns. It was important that the design reflected Marcus’ professional approach to his business and client dealings. He wished to represent himself as a friendly, intelligent Personal Trainer who takes great pride in his flexible one on one training methods.
The Logo
There was a strong emphasis on avoiding predictable or bland colour palettes, like red or black, often used to represent many other trainers or companies in the industry. As the most important element within the design of a business branding exercise, a lot of consideration goes into the development of a logo. Having the most exposure, the logo is critical in determining colour choices and future design elements to be implemented on other material. A simple font was chosen that best represented the clean and crisp professional outlook of the new company. The oval elements in the logo became an important design feature to be exploited, as they became a great identifier that could be adapted into the designs of different material in fresh and vibrant ways.
Below I have included some early variations of the proposed design, these are done in order to give the client some choice within the design process.
several logo suggestions
The Business card
Once the logo was finalised, the next step was to proceed with incorporating it into a business card. The oval elements (or splay as it became known) is used to break up the horizontality of the business name and interrupt the blue. The yellow was introduced into the design at this point to create a contrast against the blue background when applied to the text, also contributing towards a sense of hierarchy in the information on the business card.
Specialist Fitness business cards
Letterhead and stationary
The formatting of letterheads were created for both mail-outs and invoices to be used in Microsoft Word as templates.
Company uniforms
Marcus enjoys wearing Lulu Lemon t-shirts to work, and felt he would like to incorporate them into the design of his uniforms. In keeping with the simplicity of the brand, it was decided that a small one colour logo was all that was required on the front. It was felt the word “Specialist” accompanied by the splayed ovals on the rear would prove eye catching and possibly get people talking directly to, or about him, while he’s out in public.
Specialist Fitness uniform
Window signage
Due to the location of the gym, being on a main road and near a set of traffic lights. There presented an opportunity to advertise the business to local residents, and gain exposure to pedestrians and road traffic. The shopfront comprises of two large windows which are suitable for advertising. The design of the decal had to ensure that natural light still lit the interior space, whist also providing complete privacy to clients using the facilities. The solution made good use of the logo, included the web address and also incorporated the splay element across the height of the window. To continue allowing natural light to pass through, frosting was used above and below a horizontal white strip, on which the business name stood out.
Window decal
The Website
When considering the website, it became apparent that more material would be required to flesh out a unique design. Due to the intimate nature of a “Personal Training” business, images of Marcus training his clients was going to be the most effective way to communicate his training methods. A full day‘s professional photo shoot, was arranged with Veceslav Photography, and some clients agreed to model whilst also providing testimonials on the day.
The production of the website was split into two Phases. Phase one consisted of layout and design, along with the photo-shoot. Phase two included the preparation of imagery for the web, developing the site in HTML & CSS and any testing before being upload onto the server.
Specialist Fitness Website
The Flyer
To gain the interest of local residents in the services provided by Specialist Fitness, a promotional enticement was created. A spring theme was chosen, along with the offer of a Free introductory one hour training session on presentation of the flyer.
Spring flyers
Testimonial
“I have used Alex’s design expertise a number of times for creation and implementation of promotions for my redesigned business. Alex has contributed every step of the way from logo design, business cards. uniform, signage, website design and construction, to promotional material. His understanding of the subject matter and keen eye for design have resulted in a business brand I am proud of.”
September 8, 2009 –
Marcus Tolley, Director of Specialist Fitness
