Wellhub, formerly known as Gympass, is a start-up / service / app originally giving access to multiple gym clubs for a unique subscription. To quote the Financial Times article dedicated to the change of name and rebranding:
Corporate wellness platform Gympass is rebranding as part of preparations for an initial public offering, after being valued at $2.4bn with backers including SoftBank and EQT.
The start-up said the change of name to Wellhub reflected its widening range of services, which alongside access to tens of thousands of third-party fitness centres also included partner apps for activities like sleep, meditation and diet.
The rebrand is also showcased in an introductory video, offering a glimpse into Wellhub’s new identity and vision. It comes with the obvious new logo featuring a twirly icon and a nameplate in an unidentified, most likely modified type, maybe even a custom lettering. It’s a wider grotesque with slightly rounded inside corners, echoing the roundness of the twirl symbol and symptomatic of the 2020s “nice/human” era of the startup/branding landscape.
For all headlines, Wellhub went with NaN Holo in its condensed and narrow styles, often on the bolder side of the weight range. Holo’s rounded details (see the tittles of i j or the shoulder of r) recall the roundness already present in both the icon and wordmark, as well as in the rounded corners of rectangular shapes.
But for all text sizes, UI elements and interfaces, the Wellhub team chose familiarity with the use of the now ubiquitous Inter, while Holo’s standard widths would have offered similar proportions and legibility. Was this choice motivated by a desire to save on webfont weights, or more by a conformist spirit regarding text typefaces on the web? We don’t know.
