Warhorse Barbell Club is a top-tier fitness space in Northern Liberties, Pennsylvania. They're not your standard walk-in and lift gym, they're member driven and results focused. The team at Warhorse reached out to us to help them navigate the desire to push the Warhorse brand past the doors of the flagship location and into the lifestyle/merchandise space.
We identified early on that the brand hadn't ever been unified under one banner. They'd been using various emblems, logotypes and badges pulled from previous apparel releases. Our mission was to create a mark that stood up to the challenge of representing the gym and a burgeoning brand. As is always important with apparel/goods logos, we needed this mark to be instantly recognizable at a glance and work at the smallest of sizes.
The gym had used different aesthetics for their apparel but owner Chris identified early on that he wanted the brand to have a RUCA feel. Clean, timeless, but moldable to different genres. We tested horse specific icons but eventually settled on a monogram mark. Our intent was to create a mark that was strong, balanced, and had movement with being too right or left focused. Our research and trials led us to the Keystone, the state of Pennsylvania's official symbol and moniker. The angles of the shape lent itself perfectly to the W. The hidden H (a nod to the fact Warhose is one word but received as two) helped create the suggestion of hidden - running - horse legs.
The mark is paired with a customized Futura logotype and set in various badges and athletic marks used for printing and promotional materials. The keystone lockup was a favorite of the ownership and helped influence other aspects of the brands visual language. Colors were kept simple to let the mark shine, with a deep blue and light grey allowing for high contrast viewing.
We're very proud of this work and are excited about the future of Warhorse.
