Brand book · 2026 edition
Nothing gold
can stay.
So we come
back tomorrow.
The brand standards for Stay Gold. How we look, how we sound, and where to grab the right file in ten seconds flat.
For the team
Coaches and staff. Make things that look and sound like us without waiting on a designer.
For vendors + partners
Printers, sign shops, merch, partners. Exact files, exact colours, no guessing.
For members
Two gyms, one standard. Here's what's behind the smiley.
01 Who we are
People first. Athletes second.
Two gyms in Toronto. Barbells, coaches, a clock and a lot of people who come back. Every gender, every sexuality, every body, every experience level. Zero tolerance for anything less.
02 The story
The poem isn't sad. It's an instruction.
Robert Frost wrote the law in 1923: nothing gold can stay. S.E. Hinton wrote the response in The Outsiders (1967): Ponyboy recites the poem, and Johnny Cade's last words back to him are "stay gold, Ponyboy."
The name takes Frost's line and argues with it. Yes, nothing gold can stay. Stay anyway. That's a gym. That's the whole business.
Footnote: Coppola filmed it in 1983 with a cast that was nobody yet. Patrick Swayze, Tom Cruise, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez, Matt Dillon, and Ralph Macchio as Johnny, a year before he learned to wax on. Turns out some gold does stay.
No after photo
You can't bank fitness. We don't sell the outcome. We sell the practice. There's only the next session.
Stay Gold is honest
We say the hard thing first. It takes years. If we're not the right gym, we'll tell you.
Every body. Every goal.
Feel better, have more energy, get stronger, lose fat, move without pain, gain size. Every goal is welcome and coached without judgment.
03 Logo system
Wordmark first. Always.
Reach for the wordmark by default. Use the smiley when space is tight or the wordmark is already on the page. Icons are punctuation, never the logo. Never redraw or retype any of them.
Icons
Originals on white. Inverts on gold or black. One per moment. Tap any icon for the file.
Clear space
Leave space on every side equal to a quarter of the logo's width. Nothing else gets inside it: no text, no edges, no other logos.
Minimum size
Wordmark: 1 in / 120 px wide. Smiley: 0.5 in / 48 px. Smaller than that, the dots and the type fill in.
04 Colour
Gold is earned.
Black and white carry everything. Use gold like a medal: one gold thing per piece, where it means something. Roughly 70% white, 25% black, 5% gold. Tap a value to copy it.
Pairings
05 Type
One family. Rubik.
Rubik is a free Google Font with an open licence. It's already on staygold.fit. In Google Docs it's under More fonts, and in Canva just search Rubik. Get Rubik ↗
The guides get a serif
The Unlocked guides use Fraunces for titles and Newsreader for reading. Rubik still runs the buttons. Never on ads, signage or social. Fraunces ↗ Newsreader ↗
For developers
--serif: "Fraunces", Georgia, serif; /* guides only */
--text: "Newsreader", Georgia, serif; /* guides only */
06 Voice
Blunt. Specific. Human.
Short sentences. Numbers beat adjectives: "small groups" is a claim, "eight people" is a fact. We talk as "we" to "you," and sign off ~The Stay Gold team.
We say
We never say
07 Logo lab
Where's it going?
Pick the job. We'll hand you the right mark, the right colourway and the file.
08 In the wild
Put it on something.
Real members mid-work, real light, the room as it is. Nobody posing for an after photo. Every body, every age, every gender.
Solid Gold classes
6AM
Buddy Week
A friend trains free.
Free tour
Brock or Dundas.
White for information. Black for nights and events. Full gold for offers and big moments, rarely.
09 Tee designer
Make merch that looks like us.
Pick a blank, a mark and a spot. The ink colour sets itself, so the logo always reads.
10 Rules
Please don't.
The marks are drawn by hand. They only work as drawn. If you're about to do any of these, use the original file instead.
11 Downloads
Everything, in one place.
Master files live in Google Drive. Keep their sharing as-is so the website and emails don't lose them.