Logo Design Case Study | Fighting Trim
URBAN Dictionary Definition: Fighting Trim
A state of being ready to deal with a situation, because you are either properly educated, or trained and in good physical condition.
Fighting Trim is a fitness philosophy that fosters and develops the attitude that, striving for a Fighting Trim lifestyle is the mindset to have when working out as well as with all pursuits in life.
The Brief
Based on the brief, the client wanted a brand symbol designed (for use on fitness apparels) that would represent the Fighting Trim philosophy.
Concept Development
For starters I knew I wanted to have an “F” and a “T” incorporated into the logo and I wanted them to sit inside of a shield shaped emblem/ badge. Based on discussions with the client as well as the brief provided, I decided to have two “F's” facing and mirroring each other and a "T: in the middle, I also kept the possibility that the “T” could be presented as an upward pointing arrow.
The concept of the two “F's” facing represents pushing yourself, challenging yourself, going further than you did yesterday —fighting yourself. In exercising, the opponent is you; the competition is you; the person you have to beat is facing you in the mirror. The “arrow/T” represents always raising yourself to the next level, there is always a next level to reach.
I drew several rough sketches of my ideas by hand to form a base to work from as I developed visual representations of my design concepts on the computer. My initial draft designs started with the “Nexa Slab Black” font. I trimmed the letters down until I had a unique design, with a “T” in the middle. I created a couple designs based on the font, but I found them to be too complex and too busy with unnecessary design elements.
My next design I started from scratch as opposed to starting with a font. The “T” wasn’t adding any value to the design, so I decided to go with the arrow this time. This design was a little less complex and busy, but there were still elements that weren’t quite working.
Despite still needing more work, the design was going in the right direction, literally. Aside from the obvious arrow pointing upwards, the mirroring “F’s” also formed an upward pointing arrow, getting to “the next level”. Looking closely at the design, I noticed that I could design the “F’s” in a way that followed the outline of the shield and place them inside the shield; and looking even closer the “F’s” formed a shield too. I removed the outer shield, leaving me with a cleaner element to work with.
I played around with this shape until I got it just right. I then added the arrow, thickened up the lines, and closed the gaps. The result was a clean and bold design that translates the client’s message into a “graphic” symbol.
The entire logo has an upward directional and a progressive energy to it. At the top where the F's meet, notice they also create two upward directional levels or steps, which is the client’s message, “raising to the next level”; and pushing yourself, challenging yourself, gets you to that next level.
