I am gathering cool references for my own work as a Motion Designer, and this one caught my eye this week. Day 3 of 60-days-collecting-awesome-motion-design-references I love the way this is designed, based on abstract shapes and concepts with a coding visual language that we are all already familiar with. This is a great reference in this modern era where we deal more and more with products and services that live on the internet, not on a physical product. This animation was created by Odd Fellows in collaboration with Figma.

60 days of references is a serious commitment. Curious, are you mostly drawn to the same visual language each time, or does it shift a lot depending on the day?

How do you turn movement into a visual identity without literally showing movement?

That was one of the questions behind the branding for Riva Circle, a Pilates studio based in St. Gallen, Switzerland.

Riva Circle came to us as a completely new brand. The task was to build the brand from the ground up and create a visual language that could define how Riva Circle would be perceived from the very beginning.

The goal was to create something modern and dynamic, but without being loud or overly expressive. We wanted the brand to feel refined and contemporary, while still capturing something essential to Pilates: movement, control, balance, and the connection with the body.

That became the starting point for the wordmark. We explored how we could translate the expression of the body and the movement of Pilates into typography. Rather than illustrating movement directly, we looked for a way to make it part of the letterforms themselves.

This led us to a custom typographic treatment where a simple continuous line becomes part of the letters. Most importantly, that line appears within the letter A, creating a subtle but distinctive gesture. From that detail, we developed the visual language of the brand. The result is intentionally simple, clean typography, a restrained visual system, and a recognizable symbol built from the same idea of movement.

For me, that balance was really important. The brand needed to have enough character to be recognizable, but not so much visual noise that it would compete with the experience Riva Circle is offering.

And I think the brand has proven that direction quite well. Just one year after launching, Riva Circle has grown, established a recognizable presence, and, most importantly, built a strong community around the studio.

So, this project was ultimately about taking something as expressive as movement and finding a very simple visual expression for it. One that can stay relevant as the brand continues to grow.

Creative work :)