Brooklyn-based studio Athletics has launched a new identity for Trace, a sports platform that automatically films, edits, and delivers video highlights of game day footage.
So many of the tools available to athletes position the journey of athletic growth as something that favors competition and performance. Athletics’ challenge was to create a new identity for Trace that, instead, celebrates the growth, connection, and personal progress made possible with easily accessible, shareable video.
While competing brands tell a story of performance with an assertive tone, darker color palettes, and sharper edges, Athletics’ identity is designed to stand in sharp contrast – a nurturing, friendly, and approachable presence in a landscape of adrenaline-infused brands with a color palette featuring a range of teals and joyful pop colors. The wordmark is lowercase to give a friendly feel, and the signature “Tracebot” is simplified to its most minimal form, allowing a more open, approachable and visual language to take shape. For a younger audience, the video-centric system features real user footage with a local youth soccer team; what emerges is a visual story of the authentic connections people make through sport, with teammates, friends and family.
Athletics has led many design and creative projects across tech and sports, including IBM, Square, Major League Soccer, Nashville Soccer Club, and more.