In April 2019, Aquilas was tasked to reinvigorate the brand of Nordfit, a morden fitness studio with an overall surface of 2’500 m2 located in the northern region of canton Zurich. The area is filled with fitness offers, starting from the Oerlikon train station and up to Zurich airport: at each tram stop, one or more fitness studios are reachable within few minutes by feet.
Goals of the projects were to to tailor an updated and attractive offer for existing and new customers, plus concurrently sport Nordfit a refreshed imagery in order to make it stand out from the multiple competitors. The main principle of the new imagery of Nordfit was to establish "substance and style".
A prototype brand was conceptualised with a new art direction to display Nordfit as more than just a fitness studio, rather as a sport and lifestyle brand, with an attitude closer to Nike and Adidas. Work on the design started towards mid July 2019 with a deadline for mid October 2019.
The joint team of Aquilas-Nordfit developed the new offer of the fitness studio based on four main categories: Gym, Performance, Personal Training and Health. This was intended to highlight all the different devices and services that go beyond your typical weights and gym devices. The imagery was thus developed upon these four categories with a vivid, fresh, snappy direction to visually make it stand out. With the detailed moodboard and basic elements of the design, the focus was on the next steps of production.
With art direction and basic elementes defined, Bon Wongwannawat was contacted to shot and realise the new imagery of Nordfit – he joined the projet and soon after the focus was on the casting of models: it was considered important to depict a diverse group of subjects of different ethnicities and body types.
Preproduction and logistics of the fotoshooting were set, with a detailed set of references and 11 models (a mix of national and international, fashion and fitness models) booked. The fotoshooting was organised and done over three full work days with the collaboration of Nick Soland, assistant photographer, GMG Artist and Makeup by Alex as makeup and hair artists.
With Bon was discussed and agreed to portray and frame the models as "character posters", each depicting a specific role ("runner", "boxer", "lifter", etc.) with a specific colour to tie with one of the four categories of the new offer of Nordfit. All pictures were shot on a dark grey background to allow in post production the flexibility to retouch the background and attain the desired effect depicted in the moodboard.
A total of ca. 3'500 pictures were saved in the three shooting days. After multiple rounds, the amount was thinned down to a selection of 200 pictures.
Work on post production lasted for a bit over a month, with weekly updates regarding fine tunings and overall direction. Although the different vivid background were visually striking, at this stage it was decided to reduce the the range of backgrounds to put more emphasis on the four main categories.
Gym was to stay darker with a tonality tending to blue, Performance with an intense red, Personal Training in grey with two persons and Health with shades of green and white backdrops. Gruppenkursen (Group courses), a subcategory of Gym, was also deemed relevant to highlight and needed to be differentiated from the main four categories. Eventually it retained the vividness of the colour combinations that were cut, such as the pink backdrop, to express the range of the available courses.
The prototype logo was also retweaked to have a much better legibility, but still keeping its forward momentum.
Concept & Art Direction: Vinh Pham Dang
Photographer: Parinya "Bon" Wongwannawat
Assistant Photographer: Nick Soland
Makeup and Hair: GMG Artist, Makeup by Alex
Models (left to right): Zensela S., Marco L., Tanaïs B., Davide G., Emma P., Nicola K., Berivan P., Diego L., Sarafina B., Maura W. and Henry M. (pictured above)While the overall new imagery was considered exciting, the proposed logo did unfortunately not make the cut and Nordfit preferred an internal solution to update their corporate image. The new logo and corporate design elements were then implemented in the new content.
With work on the imagery wrapping up, at the start of October 2019 it was considered and planned a videoshooting to boost the SoMe presence of Nordfit and also produce content for FB and Instagram ads. Bon Wongwannawat and Nick Soland joined again, this time with filmmaker Josy Le, to produce a series of videos.
To remain consistent with the imagery, the videos were shot at night with a prominent dark backdrop. A "main trailer", intended to hype the new offer and refreshed look of Nordfit, and a video for each of the four categories were shot. All videos were cut and edited in 16:9, 9:16 (Instagram stories) and 4:5 (FB and Instagram ads). Overall, two evenings were invested for the shooting and the final videos were delivered five days later. Because of the quasi-spontaneous setting up and short nofice of the shooting, three models of the photoshooting were able to participate in the making of the videos.
Art Direction: Parinya "Bon" Wongwannawat, Vinh Pham Dang
Camera: Parinya "Bon" Wongwannawat
Assistant Camera: Josy Le
Behind the Scenes: Nick Soland
Editing: Parinya "Bon" WongwannawatModels (in order of appearance): Davide G., Nicola K., Emma P.
Gym video
Performance video
Personal Training video
Health video
The new imagery was employed for the new website of Nordfit, developed by Aurora MarCom, and SoMe activities.