Personal Project
VISUAL IDENTITY
BUILT THROUGH
THE GRIND
Year
2026
Role
Brand Designer
Graphic Designer
Creative Direction
Tools
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe Photoshop
Figma
ChatGPT
AI Image Generation
Industry
Fitness & Wellness
Brand Context
The Grind Lab is a fictional hybrid performance gym built around a simple idea: progress does not come from being the strongest person in the room. It comes from showing up, putting in the work, and doing it again.
The brand brings together strength training, conditioning, endurance, recovery, and community under one identity. It is designed for everyday athletes, beginners, and people returning to fitness who want structure and motivation without the intimidating attitude often associated with high-performance gyms.
Its personality is gritty and intense, but also supportive, honest, and human. The visual direction reflects that balance through raw textures, bold typography, cinematic photography, and energetic orange accents.
Project Overview
I created The Grind Lab as a self-initiated branding project to explore how a gym could feel powerful without becoming aggressive or unapproachable.
The goal was to build more than a logo. I wanted to create a complete world around the brand, from its message and visual identity to posters, campaigns, social media, merchandise, digital applications, and the gym environment itself.
The identity is built around the idea of repeated effort. The three-mark symbol is inspired by reps, sets, and tally marks, representing work that is counted, repeated, and earned over time. The longer centre mark represents the grind, where most of the progress happens.
Built through the grind.
The Grind Lab is a fictional concept and is not a real gym.
Responsibilities
I shaped The Grind Lab from the initial idea through to the final visual system, covering brand strategy, creative direction, identity design, campaign concepts, social content, merchandise, and environmental applications.
Work Categories
Brand Identity
Logo, colour, typography, graphic elements, and visual direction.
Campaign Design
Posters and promotional materials for classes, events, and the Mark the Grind challenge.
Digital & Social
Web banners, app concepts, Instagram carousels, and Stories.
Brand Applications
Merchandise, gym equipment, signage, and environmental mockups.
Reflection & Key Learnings
Creating The Grind Lab showed me that a strong brand is not built from a logo alone. The project became more convincing when the strategy, photography, typography, campaign ideas, digital content, and physical applications all supported the same message.
It also helped me improve how I use AI within a design workflow. The strongest results came from giving clear creative direction, refining details through multiple iterations, and treating generated visuals as raw material rather than finished design.
Most importantly, I learned how to balance intensity with approachability. The brand needed to feel powerful and performance-driven without becoming overly aggressive or intimidating, which shaped every decision throughout the project.