Brief: Active Physical Therapy needed a distinctive identity that would inspire people to come to their new facility in downtown Seattle.

Solution: Physical therapy can be characterized by hard work, which often results in great physical rewards and triumphing over debilitating injury. Train of Thought designed a custom logotype with an active personality and an economical color scheme. The logo is suggestive of a person in action, the initial 'A', and the empowering symbol of a person with arms raised signifying triumph over their injury.

Our strategy session with the client revealed, not surprisingly, a very clinical approach to her work. We also discovered that she likes sports icons, and she is a very energetic person. These three characteristics set the tone for the logo design. We steered her away from specific sports icons because they are so common that they lack the unique image recognition necessary for a logo to be memorable, and they also exclude people involved in sports not directly represented.

For our initial logotype sketches, we used stylized version of existing typefaces, and it was clear right from the start that the client liked one particular typeface. She asked if we could use a more bold variety of it. Unfortunately, there was no bold version, so we had to create a new typeface.

After the rough sketches, the logo immediately took on an iconic quality, reflecting the client's affinity for sports icons. This logo is different though because it characterizes an energetic person stretching, which is a core component of physical therapy.