Vine Fitness
A gym on the lower level of a landmark building had a location worth leading with, and a site that made people work to find out where it was.
At a glance
What the engagement covered, and where the work is live.
- Client type
- 24/7 gym in Carew Tower, downtown Cincinnati
- Services delivered
- Website Design and Development, Brand Identity, Local SEO and Business Listings, Hosting and Care
- Timeline
- Design and build, then ongoing care
- Live site
- vinecincy.com
The problem
Vine Fitness occupies a full floor on the lower level of Carew Tower, which is both its best asset and its hardest logistical fact. Downtown workers and residents will absolutely train in the basement of a landmark, but only once they know it is there, know how to get in, and know it is open at the hour they can actually go.
The approach
We made the location the headline rather than a footnote, and built the facility page around what is on the floor, boxing, iron, and recovery, in the order a member cares about. Directions, access hours and the day pass are reachable from the first screen, because a downtown gym is competing with the twenty minutes someone has at lunch.
The outcome
Vine now leads with the thing that makes it distinct, gives a first-time visitor a straight answer on getting in, and sells day passes and memberships without an inquiry. We keep the site hosted, patched, and current with the schedule.
In detail
What the build actually involved.
Location is the pitch
Most gyms bury the address in a footer. For Vine it is the reason to choose the place. A full floor under Carew Tower, on Vine Street, in the middle of downtown, is a genuinely different proposition from a unit in a strip mall, and it is only an advantage if a visitor learns it in the first two seconds.
It is also the source of the only real objection: it is downstairs, in a building people associate with something else. So the site has to do two things at once. Lead with the location, and immediately make getting in feel obvious.
What we built
A first screen that names the building. Carew Tower, lower level, downtown, 24/7. Someone who works three blocks away should recognize themselves immediately.
A facility page organized by what you came to do. Boxing with its own bags and room to work, free weights and cardio, recovery, and the supplement shop. Numbered, plain, and specific about what is actually there rather than adjectives about the experience.
Directions and access treated as content, not fine print. For a gym below street level in a landmark building, “how do I get in” is a conversion question, not a support question.
A day pass on the first screen. Downtown traffic includes people in town for two days, and a day pass converts them without a conversation.
A member portal in the navigation, where a paying member expects it.
An identity that suits the room. Dark, red, and a heavy grotesque, with photography from the actual floor rather than a stock gym in another country.
The unglamorous half
Name, address, phone and hours matched across the site and the directories, hours set to when someone actually answers, and the listing pointed at a page that can take a signup.
For a downtown business surrounded by competitors within walking distance, that consistency is worth more than any design decision on the page.
Ongoing
We host it, patch it, back it up, and make the small changes as they come. The people who run Vine spend their time on the floor, which is where they should be spending it.
Tell us what you need built.
No pitch deck and no discovery fee. Most engagements start with a single site, and we add the rest only when it earns its place.
- Send a short brief, or just a link to the site you have now.
- We reply within two business days with questions, or a time to talk.
- You get scope, sequence and a price range in writing before anything starts.