How we made Golden Pilates visual identity

Design

29/01

Summer was in full bloom when Estúdio Ofício, Barbot Bernardo’s graphic design studio, kick-started the project to design the new identity for Golden Pilates, a new Portuguese Pilates machines manufacturer.

Known for their wonderful Espaço Phi’s, a central Porto Pilates studio and Golden Mean’s Pilates teacher training academy, the founders Ana and Miguel decided to launch a new equipment brand catering for the European market. Their machines were developed based on all their extensive knowledge gathered over years and years of practice, teaching the studio clients and training pilates teachers.

The importance of the tactile experience when using the machines and their motto, “Movement at the service of the body,” set the tone for the briefing.

The project evolved from Golden Pilates visual identity to a flexible system shared by all three brands, including Estúdio Phi, a new name for the studio, and Golden Mean, the Pilates teachers academy.

We went back to the first decades of the 20th century, researched Joseph Pilate’s inspiring life, and collected clues from the first modernist movements and mid-century design, De Stijl Dutch design compositions, Paul Rand’s geometric type experiments, and the idea of movement within and through experimental typography. We were especially struck by Jost Hochuli visual structures and grids in editorials and posters.

We were also very inspired by vintage metallic logos carved onto old textile industrial machines, something we registered in visits to factories in Northern Portugal: their beauty, timelessness, textures, and geometric forms.

Typography is the central element for Golden Pilates visual identity, not only for the logo system design but also for the printed materials and editorial approach.

The logo construction is based on rigorous geometry with surprisingly soft curves. Every letter designed occupies a harmonious space, especially the invisible space between them. Playing with the contrast and dynamic of angles and curves immediately centres us in the experience of the Pilates practice.

The visual system allows the construction of two additional brands, Estúdio Phi and Golden Mean, using the same principles and alignments.

Symbols followed through, with the lowercase g (as for golden and as a metaphor for the body) used for Golden Pilates and Golden Mean brands. For Studio Phi, the chosen symbol is the Greek letter phi.

For texts and headlines, we opted for the iconic FF Meta by Erik Spiekermann, released in 1991, for all its intrinsic history and style: humanist narrow sans-serif letters with thin strokes that save space (to counter characters’ tendency to run into each other) but thick enough to ensure legibility.

Using FF Meta is also a nod to the early digital era, a way of bridging the first and last decades of the 20th century.

Spiekermann described it as “complete antithesis of Helvetica”, which he found boring and bland. Ironically, it became known as the “Helvetica of the 1990s”.

Rigour, detailed design, and elegant soft curves. FF Meta’s tall x-height and open counters pair with Pilates concepts of movement, openness and spaciousness. The lowercase round dot over the letters i and j and the not-fully-closed bottom loop in the binocular g are distinctive features aligned with the idea of wholeness and movement.

We combined FF Meta with monospaced FF Info Correspondence Pro (designed by Ole Schäfer and Erik Spiekermann), which is used in all technical editorials, catalogues, and web design.

The colour palette brings forward the contrast of emotions with bright yellows, dark green olives, and black: joy, optimism, comfort and warmth balanced with sophisticated dark shades.

The visual imagery is built around all the elements, from typography to colours and composition, added with a painted illustration of movement, body geometry and spontaneity.

Handrawn, textured, expressive.