Armando Abondio Performance Trainer Branding

Scope

☞ Brand Strategy

☞ Visual & Verbal Identity

☞ Logo System

☞ Typography & Color

☞ Social Media Strategy & Design

☞ Web Design

☞ Merch & Collateral

Art Direction

Margarita Contreras

Copywriting

Pierluigi Capretti

Year

2023

Armando Abondio's motto "Non per apparire, per performare", ("not to appear, to perform") encapsulates his vision of a world where appearance is not as important as essence. His mission is to help athletes reach the highest level of performance by giving them access to the most recent techniques available. To quantify improvement, Armando relies on data collection during training. His work philosophy sees weight training and personalized programs as crucial allies for athletes who want to improve their results.

Brand Identity

As always, we started working on this project by meeting with Armando to fully understand his vision and goals. After getting a clear image, we entered the process of competitors and ideal client identification. The following step was to create the visual and verbal identity that would best reflect Armando's vision.

Logo System

The main logo consists of two letters "A" as in Armando Abondio. Together, they form the shape of a ramp that symbolizes the path to a superior level of performance. The same concept is re-proposed by the "+" enclosed in the circle, which stands for self-improvement and a goal to aim for.

We customized the wordmark with a slender look achieved through soft but firm lines and curves that resemble those of the '+' symbol.

The goal was to create a versatile logo that would be perfect both for vertical and horizontal use.

The secondary logo loses the "ramp" and focuses on the wordmark, complementing it with the "+" and the additional line "performance trainer".

To offer an option for any possible environment, we created additional logo versions, consisting of a vertical lockup, a seal, a monogram, and an icon.

Main Logo | Horizontal Logo | Icon | Tagline Seal for Armando Abondio Performance and Personal Trainer Brand Design

Color and Type

The color palette we chose is directly connected to Armando's tone of voice. The goal was to convey the idea of calm strength, which represents the ability to approach any situation with competence and patience, without renouncing discipline and determination. Another factor that we kept in mind as we curated the palette, was the common shades that similar businesses tend to adopt for their communication. We needed to identify a combination that would stand out from the overly-used bright red white and black "let's show how strong we are", in-your-face approach. We opted for a more graceful variety of colors, avoiding neon-like shades and strong contrast, favoring elegant earthly tones that wink at outdoor life, different training situations, and gym gear.

As for fonts, in order to match the personality expressed by the color palette, we went for Smoothy Sans as our primary choice, applying it to titles and headings. For subtitles and descriptive text, our choice fell on Rajdhani medium, semibold and bold.

Verbal Identity

We helped Armando by developing his messaging pillars and crafting a value proposition statement and a tagline. We landed on "non per apparire, per performare", a motto that takes inspiration from Armando's past military training. The tone of voice we crafted was inspired directly by Armando's temperament, conveying his calmness, determination, sense of discipline, and work ethic.

Web Design

Armando asked us to build an easy-to-access platform laid out in a way that would allow visitors to quickly access important information and that would help him sort potential clients. To keep it simple, we designed the site to make it feel like an online business card, where only the essential content appears.

We conveyed Armando's personality by applying all the stylistic choices that were outlined during the definition of the brand's identity. We topped everything off with some cool custom 3D imagery.

Social Media Strategy & Design

Our objective for Armando's social media strategy was to make it easy for him to create new content and keep his online presence alive in the future.

We provided a series of content pillars that would serve him as a solid base for social media communication.

These pillars consisted of different themes and subjects that revolved around the world of health and training.

To complete the strategy, we provided 12 different editable templates to be used for social media posting.

Collateral & Merch

We created a series of merchandise items to further communicate the essence of the brand. From hoodies and hats displaying Armando's logo to business cards and brochures listing the services and packages that he provides.