VRTX Fitness.
A Missoula community gym that opened during COVID and grew into a neighborhood staple.
Build a gym brand in strength and nurture, at the same time.
Open during COVID, in a space that had failed before.
A neighborhood brand the community carries with them.
A V that could hold weight.
We landed on the V early. Structural, anchored, something that could carry weight. We worked through a handful of versions together before René chose the one with details that felt like hers.
The wordmark sits beside it with the same intention. Quietly confident.
Nurture your inner athlete.
Then we added the script. "Nurture your inner athlete." The line came out of the conversations between us, and I don't remember which of us said it first.
A sub-brand that locks in.
A few years later, René opened a strength training room inside the gym and asked me to build a sub-brand for it. She wanted something that evoked "locking in," but it had to live inside VRTX without competing with it.
I started where you'd expect. Vault doors, locks, dial mechanisms. None of them felt right.
What landed was a corner system. Four right-angle brackets that frame the wordmark, like a target lock. Quiet enough to live alongside the V, distinct enough to stand on its own.
Settling into the block.
The signage went up on the side of the building, and driving past it for the first time felt good in a way I don't always feel about my own work. It glows at night. The decals, wall treatments, and apparel all hold together because the system was built to.
For opening, we put a billboard directly across the street from the gym. Same wordmark, same energy, scaled up so it was hard to miss from the road. The brand felt like it had already settled into the block.
Some projects start with a brief. This one started with a song.
I was DJing near Brennan's Wave when Pete Nazlerod walked up and said the music gave him chills. A few minutes later his wife René came over and mentioned she was about to open a gym. I told her I was a designer.
She pulled out her phone. She'd just liked one of my Instagram posts and had been thinking about reaching out. Small world.
John is creative, smart, logical and efficient with all aspects of design and implementation. John created our logo and assisted with web site development. We are pleased with the outcome and ease of working together.
Let's build something that fits.
This is what brand identity, logo design, and graphic design can look like when they're built around the people behind the business. If you're a Missoula business thinking about a brand that fits, let's start a conversation.