Yinz Run Club
Collaborators
Bonnie Weibel - Creative Director
Zevy Blokh - Graphic Designer
Services
Strategy
Brand Identity
Studios
Arcjet & Wandel Design
Role
Art Director & Designer
Yinz Run Club (YRC) is a Pittsburgh-based run club built around one idea: running is for everyone. Not about pace, not about PRs, instead it's about community. Self-described as Pittsburgh's local, lovable "misfits," YRC needed a brand identity that could be as welcoming and unpretentious as the club itself, while standing on its own in a city saturated with black-and-gold sports culture.
I art directed the full rebrand with a small team of creatives at the helm. Taking YRC from a clip-art winged shoe to an ownable, trademarkable identity system. The work spanned the logomark, color palette, type system, mascot characters, and social templates. Each one of these designed to scale with a volunteer-run organization.
The Brand Concept
Before there was no own-able items except for a mascot, “Misfit.” Through exploration, the team surfaced a lot of unique ideas. Finding something cool wasn't the hard part; the hard part was turning it into a real story. As I looked through the work, one concept stood out. Sparking an idea to tying Pittsburgh's history of championship sports teams into the mark. The pennant became the heart of the logo, a way to celebrate and highlight every single member of the community.
Because every runner has their own "championship," their own moment worth celebrating and sharing with the club. It might be running a first mile without stopping. It might be qualifying for Boston.
Visual Language
Beyond the main pennant lockup, the team developed a few additional marks for use across socials, merch, and other items. These reflect the range of people that make up YRC, not just one type of runner or individual.
For color, I pulled a simple palette based on the safety vests worn by pace volunteers. I paired it with a type system built from open source fonts, TikTok Sans, Sharpie, and General Sans, so the whole system could be used freely across the volunteer base without worrying about licensing or program limitations.
The Outcome
With this system in place, YRC is now equipped to move more effectively and uniformly across social media and activations. Shortly after launch, the new brand gave the team a foundation to collaborate with a local brewery on a beer release. That collaboration sold out, bringing a nice influx of funds to the club.