A Pilates studio, three founders and a colour.

Orangetheory Fitness began in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in March 2010. English Wikipedia names its founders as Ellen Latham, an exercise physiologist, together with Jerome Kern and David Long, and describes the company as the successor to a Pilates studio, “Ellen’s Ultimate Workout,” which Latham had opened in Fort Lauderdale in the late 1990s. Long went on to lead the company as chief executive; Athletech News described him in November 2024 as the co-founder who had grown the brand as CEO since 2010.

The company is a franchisor. Its studios are run largely by franchise owners under a shared name, look and class format. Wikipedia describes studios split into three stations, for treadmills, rowing machines and weight training, with classes led by a coach and booked through the Orangetheory app, which lists the location, day, time and coach for each open class.

The brand’s name and its colour are tied together. Inside studios, Wikipedia says, members wear heart-rate monitors and their readings are shown on screens on the wall or on tablets fixed to the machines, divided into five zones named after colours: grey, blue, green, orange and red. Orange is one of those zones, as it is the first word of the company’s name.

Growth brought outside investment. Wikipedia says the private equity firm Roark Capital Group made a growth equity investment in 2016, and the company is based in Boca Raton, Florida. Its class names have since multiplied: Athletech News reported in December 2024 that the signature class was called Orange 60, joined by a strength class, Strength 50, and a treadmill class, Tread 50 — names that again put the brand’s colour and the class length side by side.

The splat stays; the rest is refreshed.

A detailed public account of Orangetheory’s visual identity comes from its December 2024 rebrand. Athletech News reported on 10 December 2024 that the company was launching a campaign called “Every Reason is the Right Reason,” built around a 60-second advertising spot, as the start of what Orangetheory called a “renewed brand strategy.”

The report set out what would change and what would not. Orangetheory would keep its “classic splat logo,” the publication said, but would update its colour palette, typography and iconography, and adopt what the company described as a warmer, more energised photographic style. The updates were to be rolled out in phases, beginning with marketing and digital channels including the website, with changes to studio interiors to follow later.

The same report named the people and firms involved. The campaign was developed by Orangetheory’s new in-house brand design and content agency, Spark Studio, with the director duo Mister and the production company Greenpoint Pictures, while DesignStudio NY worked on the overall brand strategy. David Chriswick, the company’s senior vice president of brand and communications, told Athletech News that the campaign was “not a one-and-done initiative” but “a long-term platform,” and that it would also explain the company’s total-body workout, its range of equipment, its coaching and its OTconnect technology platform.

Chriswick also gave the commercial reason for the change. In-person group fitness had rebounded since the pandemic, he told the publication, but “the category isn’t the same, there are new alternatives and consumer expectations have shifted.” In the company’s statement, he described the campaign as “about celebrating the diversity of our communities and the personal journeys of every member.” The splat stayed; the colour, type, icons and photography around it were to change.

Wikipedia summarises the result in one line, saying that after the 2024 merger Orangetheory “retains its logo but adjusted its branding.”

Signage, light and screens.

A gym or fitness-studio brand reaches people through spaces as much as through screens, so its identity has to work on a wide range of surfaces. Exterior signage is often the first contact: a fascia or illuminated sign has to read from across a car park or a busy street, which tends to favour a short wordmark, a simple symbol and a colour that holds up at night. Inside, the brand moves onto walls, floor graphics, wayfinding, locker areas and reception desks, where tone of voice and typography carry as much weight as the logo itself.

Lighting is a design tool in this category. Some studios use coloured light to set a mood for a class, while others favour bright, even light and pale finishes; either way, the chosen light changes how the brand colour looks in person. Apparel and merchandise extend the identity onto staff uniforms, towels, bottles and bags, so marks need to survive embroidery, single-colour print and small sizes. Apps and booking tools add another layer, translating the palette and type into icons, buttons and class schedules on a phone. A consistent system ties these touchpoints together without forcing every location to look identical.

Part of Purpose Brands since 2024.

Ownership changed in 2024. Wikipedia says that in late February 2024 Orangetheory and Self Esteem Brands, the parent company of Anytime Fitness, announced a merger, which was completed in April 2024. Athletech News reported on 21 November 2024 that the combined company had been named Purpose Brands, with headquarters in Boca Raton, Florida, and Woodbury, Minnesota, and with Tom Leverton, a former chief executive of Topgolf, as its chief executive.

The same report listed the businesses inside the new holding company: Orangetheory and Anytime Fitness, together with The Bar Method, Basecamp/Sumhiit Fitness and Waxing the City. Roark Capital, which had invested in both Orangetheory and Self Esteem Brands, would continue to support the combined company, the sides said. David Long and Anytime Fitness co-founder Chuck Runyon joined the Purpose Brands board, and Runyon told the publication that the two had discussed bringing their companies together for several years. Wikipedia adds that Lauren Cody was appointed president of Orangetheory and that Long became co-chair of the Purpose Brands board.

The merger put two very different identities under one owner. Anytime Fitness is a round-the-clock gym brand; Orangetheory is a coached-class studio brand whose name, logo and in-class screens all lean on a single colour. Both names appear as separate brands in the November 2024 report, and Orangetheory’s refresh was announced the following month.

The studio itself is part of the identity. Wikipedia describes the room laid out in stations, with metrics shown on screens and, in updated studios, on tablets attached to treadmills and rowers; the five colour-coded zones turn those screens into a running display of the brand’s colours during every class. The 2024 plan, as reported by Athletech News, was to carry the refreshed palette and photography from the website into those rooms over time.

The digital layer matters too. Members book through the Orangetheory app, Wikipedia says, choosing a studio, time and coach, and the company’s OTconnect platform was named by Chriswick as one of the brand’s distinguishing features. Brand colour has to work on a phone screen, a wall-mounted display and a studio sign alike.

For a design guide, Orangetheory shows how a brand can tie its name, its logo and its in-class interface to one colour, then refresh everything around a logo it chose to keep. Compare Peloton, another fitness brand built around screens, and lululemon, whose identity runs through studios and apparel. For this guide we use orange, espresso and grey with a bold sans, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

Keep Orangetheory Fitness’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.