Design your way

Have you tried designing a fitness logo lately? In this article, you’ll find some tips on how to design fitness logos well.

Both professional players and their passionate supporters rely on sports logos to be recognized.

Gyms are no exception to this rule, with numerous coaches and trainees looking to create the best gym logos and stand out of the crowd.

To help them out, we collected a list of useful tips and fitness logo ideas that will certainly keep their teams on the map.

Fitness logo design tips

Less is more

A gym logo should be simple and unobtrusive, and yet convey all important information. To create the perfect piece, you have to think of where that logo is going to appear, including gear, memorabilia, and the compulsory jerseys and uniforms. To ensure the best continuity across all promotional materials, avoid overly detailed sketches.

Make it unique

How do great sports and fitness logos look like? To attract attention, you should first identify the main goals of your marketing strategy, and think of designs your audience would be impressed by. Bold colours, striking contrasts, and strong fonts will help you make this happen.

Make the sport recognizable at first sight

The icon on your logo has one and only purpose – to show people which your sport is. Be it that you’re creating a football logo, basketball logo, golf logo, or a fitness logo, you need to create a piece that will represent your tram and your activities, instead of making viewers wonder who you are.

Choose the appropriate colours

Choosing a colour for your sports logo will be easy, as all popular disciplines are commonly connected to a particular hue. Swimmers’ logos, for instance, often feature a blue theme.

When creating a gym logo, however, you need to consider several important factors. In such cases, branding is not explicitly related to a colour, and you need to research the market to come up with the ideal branding strategy. Keep in mind that this logo will be the official face of your brand, and help prospective customers identify with your ideas and values.

Familiarize with your target audience

Before you start sketching your fitness logo, identify your prospective visitors and think of ways to attract them to your venue. In order to succeed, a logo has to be directed towards the target audience, which means you should make it specific and memorable. Be it that you’re targeting professional body builders or women aged between 20 and 30, make that visible on your logo.

Convey the right message

Your logo will be the icon of your brand that showcases the values of your business, and shares your message without further explanations.

This is why sports logos are simple and make use of limited visual elements instead of textual explanations. Nike is a great example – they have one of the simplest logos used so far, but yet encourage and inspire users to challenge themselves and to succeed.

Bring inspiration along the way

While designing a logo, choose inspirational emoticons that will enable viewers to identify with your brand.

The questions you should ask yourself are: How is your target audience supposed to feel about coming to your gym? How will you create that feeling? Most of the time, people expect a gym logo to inspire them to start exercising.

Different logo colours inspire different emotions. In the fitness logo case, the best way to go is to pick hues that motivate your trainees, and create a sense of belonging to your community.

Keep an eye on your competitors

In order to get the full picture of how your brand will fit on the market, do some research on competitors. This will help you craft a better brand positioning strategy in the competitive fitness industry, as you will communicate clearly what makes you different than other gyms and fitness clubs. A good idea is to use text slogans with distinctive fonts and colours that may motivate people to choose you over other providers.

Make the fitness logo simple, but don’t exclude essential elements

Think of all the iconic logos you know – the thing they all have in common is simplicity, and the fact people recognize them within seconds. In the fitness industry, however, logos should not be deprived of leading indicators that communicate your offer. For instance, these elements help users understand whether you’re dealing with weightlifting or cross-fit, and build up their exact expectations.

Create a result-oriented gym logo

Why do people go to the gym? For most of them, this is a way to make an important change in their lives, be that enhanced appearance, improved health and fitness, or a response to a dangerous disease like diabetes and obesity.

Despite of the multiple benefits, jumping on the gym bandwagon is a difficult experience for most beginners, and many of them quit before they’ve experienced actual results.

Exercising can be particularly daunting for people trying to lose weight, and they are usually the ones that have the most trouble getting used to the gym.

This is why training and fitness logos need to be just as motivational as appealing, and make people believe that they will genuinely experience the change they’re after.

If possible, make a logo that promotes and advertises what customers are looking for, ideally the results they wish to achieve.

It could be a thinner body layout in an energetic colour, or even a silhouette drawn inside a larger body. On the safe side, you can always get an image of a barbell-lifting client or high-fiving to the trainer to invoke a sense of community.

Use welcoming colours on a fitness logo

Most of the newcomers you’re targeting have little to no fitness expertise, and will feel intimidated or even embarrassed upon their first encounter with a personal trainer.

As strange as it sounds, this is the main reason why gyms struggle to attract their first clients.

This is why we’re repeatedly advising designers on creating a motivational logo, in particular one whose colours invoke a pleasant, non-judgemental vibe. We recommend pinks, greens, blues, oranges, and other energetic and festive tones.

Do you research before designing

Personal trainers may all have the same tasks and goals, but that doesn’t mean that their modus operandi will be the same. Therefore, the distinct style of a trainer is another important element that should be reflected on the logo. When teaching bare fitness, for example, an image of kickboxing won’t make much sense.

Same applies to your individual methods of training – you can always go for a logo where you are cheering up a sweating client, or helping him hold a barbell, and count on the fact that future customers will be ready to rely on you.

What are the most common fonts used on gym logos?

Branding matters the world to a new fitness studio or even a simple, YouTube-featured training program, as it helps clients wrap up an opinion before they’ve even used your services.

Being completely frank, there won’t be anything more important than the logo to reaffirm the success of your brand.

This is why designers work side-by-side with fitness professionals to come up with the perfect image and name, but not that many of them give fonts the attention they deserve.

Truth is, typography is a critical element of branding, and you should be extremely careful when making your decision.

Here are the most commonly used fonts:

Modesto

Is your plan to capture the attention of clients even when they’re hundreds of feet away? Will your gym be advertised on signs and billboards? If so, you should look at 2000 Modesto to cater to your exact needs.

Modesto is large and imperative, but manages to attract attention without making viewers feel overwhelmed. It works perfectly with many different colours, and help convey a helpful and friendly message to clients with all types of fitness goals.

Helvetica

Helvetica is a classic font, and its use in fitness logos is self-explanatory. It will be ideal for gyms conveying a message of intensive strength training, including weightlifting and kick-boxing. The best way to use it is in black and white combinations.

Rockwell

For a gym logo that will remind of rugged Americana Olympic logos, Rockwell is the way to go. The bold font is easy to notice and even easier to read, and you can resize it for all types of marketing materials without affecting its impeccable appearance. It will look great with pops of intense red and blue.

Bobber

Bobber is just cut for creative and out-of-the-box gyms, and the preferred font of the ‘hipster’ clientele in large communities’ millennial markets. Online, you can find some perfect examples of it injecting a personal vibe on the logos of personalized cycling studios, dancing clubs, and similar venues.

Custom Typography

If you can afford to do so, the best option will always be to have a one-of-a-kind type crafted in the service of your brand.

This way, the logo will be unique and protected from plagiarism, and customers will know you’re ready to do whatever it takes to be there for them.

Having a font designed exclusively for your brand won’t be a cheap process, but the investment will certainly pay off once you create a product clients will remember. This matters in particular to gyms preparing for online campaigns, as they’re facing an even more competitive market.

Ending thoughts on fitness logo design

A good gym logo requires a good deal of work, and several hours spent on solid research. Before you hit off with the design proves, evaluate your audience and competitors, and think of combinations that convey your message in a welcoming way.

The fitness industry is a sea of unused opportunities, but still competitive enough to make customers’ emotions the only criteria for success. The secret, however, is simple – make a logo people will trust, and let them know they’re welcomed in your community.

If you liked this article about fitness logo design, you should check out these as well:

The post Fitness Logo Design: How To Create A Great One appeared first on Design your way.