Ironheads

Ironheads is a non-profit group for people seeking adventure and camaraderie in Portland, Oregon. They are endurance junkies who welcome any endurance-minded athlete in addition to, and beyond, the scope of triathlons.

Teamwork! Action! FUN!

Ironheads are in the race together.. until the very end. With the Ironheads goals of being inclusive, active, fun, friendly, and non-elitist, the mark works to show that though members come from different backgrounds and places they are all racing towards the same goal—together.

The color palette is a curated from the several shades and tones used in previous years. Because the color palette is to be used on both digital platforms and clothing items (running suits), strict color interactions were detailed in the guidelines.

Brand Evolution

The Ironheads logos are an important piece to the history of the team and we wanted to celebrate that history while giving a flexible mark that could convey a key component that the other marks were missing: action.

Reworking Type

Restrictions were placed on the main typeface as this was the one component that the client could not part with for various reasons. Thus, we decided to adopt it as a wordmark and use secondary type in other areas, specifically formatting and typesetting to align with the wordmark.

Evolved Messaging

Started as an IronMan official triathlon team, the Ironheads have been having conversations of what a triathlon team will evolve into post-COVID. Limboing between old names such as Ironheads Racing Team and Team Ironheads, Ironheads were seeking direction and verbiage that would easily convey and frame the groups evolution. During initial meetings, words such as "social" and "endurance" were being used when describing their future. Noticing this, I proposed the idea of being re-tagged as "a social endurance club".

What I Learned

This project was a great in-depth learning experience into how branding and messaging are going to be key in the post-COVID era as brands and non-profits begin to be more strategic and tailored in their approach.