UFC GYM Jiu-Jitsu — Program Identity

Challenge

UFC GYM was adding Brazilian jiu-jitsu as a named program inside clubs that already carry a loud parent brand. The mark had to read as UFC GYM without being swallowed by it, and it had to hold up somewhere most fitness sub-brands never go — a mat, a gi, a gym wall, a 600×200 banner ad. Jiu-jitsu has its own visual language of earned insignia, and a logo that ignored that would have read as marketing rather than as a program practitioners take seriously.

Approach

Designed the identity as a horizontal lockup plus an octagon badge. The lockup handles headers, ads and print — UFC GYM set tight against JIU-JITSU, with an optional rule carrying Honor · Discipline · Respect. The badge does the work the lockup can't: it borrows the cage silhouette from the parent brand and wears it like a patch, values curved around the base. Rather than one file, the badge ships as a family — outlined, stencil, stamped, and a limited-use signature variant for the launch — so it survives embroidery, single-colour vinyl, a reversed wall graphic and a screen without being redrawn — the gi patch and the mat graphic are the two cases the kit was built to pass. All of it is documented in a 40-page brand guide covering mission, values, logo system, colour, type and photography, then rolled out across a three-beat launch: Coming Soon, The Mats Are Calling, Grand Opening, co-branded with Jiu Livre.

Outcome

The program launched on one system: adult, kids and event display sets across six placements, door hangers, tear-offs, 5×7 flyers and pull-up banners, all pulling from the same badge family. The variant kit is the part that keeps paying — a club opening next quarter gets a mark that already works on whatever surface it lands on, which is the difference between a logo and a program identity.