Constantly reshaping the workout experience

Think about what draws your eyes to a product. Is it the shape? The color? The sleekness? The simplicity? Now consider the fact that what looks good has to coincide with how great the product functions and feels. How accessible are all of the buttons and extras while you work out? Why are the handlebars shaped the way they are? How is the angle of the bike’s frame determined? Will the machine accommodate exercisers of all shapes and sizes? Enter the focused, inventive world of the Life Fitness Industrial Design team where form and function come together to design the world’s most celebrated family of fitness equipment.

One look and you know it's from Life Fitness

Our entire lineup of cardiovascular and strength-training products looks similar for a reason. Actually, for many reasons. Elements of color, details, form, and graphics are applied to designing every one of our machines: from Life Fitness Treadmills, Cross-Trainers, and Stairclimbers to our Lifecycle bikes and Life Fitness G5 Gym Systems. It’s an industrial design philosophy that makes it easy for you to get accustomed to use all Life Fitness products – regardless of which machine you use.

The design affects everyting. Everything affects the design.

Industrial Design is a major component of our product development process at all stages – from the initial idea to the production line. So our Industrial Design team stays in step with the other groups that eat, drink, and sleep fitness product ideas: engineering, biomechanics, product development, manufacturing and assembly, testing and reliability. And it all has to be done within certain constraints, regulations, and other pre-established standards. That’s what makes the Industrial Design team such a remarkable asset to reshaping the future of fitness.

LF Industrial Design 101

The Four Elements of Industrial Design
Our team is constantly put to the test combining four crucial factors of successful Life Fitness product design. It’s a process that considers the wants and needs of the global community of exercisers that make up our 120 – country distribution chain. So whenever and wherever you see our machines you think "That’s definitely a Life Fitness product."

1. Color
Our team studies the timely color trends of many major industrial product categories such as luxury automobiles, consumer electronics, motorcycles, and computer products. Which colors convey the most sophistication? Which ones have the most staying power? This comprehensive visual research helps us determine the colors that will give our machines the most distinctive, contemporary, and stylish appeal.

2. Form
From furniture, tractor product lines, and sleek liquor bottle shapes to the lasting images of timeless celebrities, our industrial designers are feverishly inspired at all hours of the day. These marketplace and popular culture trends help our team establish our own unique, functional, yet consistent vision of the way Life Fitness products take shape and reshape over time.

3. Details
Everything that goes into our products serves a specific purpose. Our team makes sure our products and their components all come together to create one clean, streamlined family of products. The subtle pill-like shapes of the Cross-Trainer’s upright handlebars and the Treadmill’s handrails prove our products are distinct, yet related in many ways. The same thing can be said about the consistent arcs featured at the top of every product’s console display.

4. Graphics
Take a look at the placement of certain buttons and use of colors on any Life Fitness product. These visual graphics are designed to look and feel consistent no matter what Life Fitness machine you look at. That way you always know what color the Cool Down button is and where the up and down arrows are – whether you use a Lifecycle bike or a Life Fitness Treadmill.