Tristan Gage

The Brief

This wasn't a mark for a business starting from nothing. Emma was rebranding from SwimWod, a swim-and-CrossFit coaching name, into a practice that could credibly hold sports psychology and physical training under one name. The old brand couldn't stretch to cover the more serious, dual offering — the mark had to carry a repositioning, not just launch a logo.

Emma was clear about what she didn't want: no clenched fists, no "pumping iron," none of the strong-metal cliché the performance category defaults to. That instinct turned out to be more than taste — "Iron" in Iron Mind refers to mental toughness, not physical strength, so a literal muscular mark would have actually misled the name. The brief was for something simple and elegant enough to hold two disciplines together without flexing to prove it.

The Thinking

The triangle had been sitting with Emma for over a year before it became a logo. Working through it together, its three points turned out to carry two overlapping meanings rather than one. Read one way, they trace Emma's own route into the practice — athlete, coach, psychologist — three stages of one continuous experience rather than three separate careers. Read the other way, they describe how she works with clients: mind, body and performance, brought together through a single holistic method rather than treated as separate services.

The Alchemist Connection

The introduction of the circle ties everything together in a combined mission. On its own, the triangle is three separate points, three roles, three focuses. What turns them into one whole is the visual argument that this is a single, holistic approach rather than psychology and physical training running as separate services. Only once the two shapes were interlocking — equal in size and standing, meeting only towards their edges rather than one containing the other — did this resemblance to the classical alchemist's symbol appear. Alchemy is typically described as a discipline fusing science, philosophy and a touch of mysticism, which tracks closely with a psychologist's own mix of evidence-based practice and personal philosophy of care. Alchemists were concerned with transforming ordinary materials into extraordinary ones — a fair one-line description of what Emma and Iron Mind Performance can offer as a service.

The Expression

Most logos in the category default to the same visual language — literal body parts, brains, limbs mid-movement. We wanted Iron Mind Performance to sit apart from that: a more considered symbol rather than a stock-metaphor image, paired with a colour palette that feels calmer than expected. Colour moved deliberately away from the category's usual black-and-silver "performance" palette. Teal reads as calm, depth and focus rather than aggression; gold reads as mastery and credibility without tipping into gym-model territory. The wordmark is a clean geometric sans — strong but balanced, legible and credible.

Full production, end to end, of more than 150 editorial-style property videos for a Shoreditch letting agency. Highlights below.

"Healthy Planet, Healthy People" is a film made to showcase Bupa's sustainability manifesto and its commitment to sustainable practice across the sector.

Worked as a runner on this shoot for AMV BBDO, produced with Quite Brilliant, which went on to win Best Use of Virtual Production at the APA IDEAS Awards 2023.

Assisted on the Winter Sun music video for the forthcoming single by Adam Kharita.