Is this gym discriminating against fitness in a bout of irony, or community?

If you’ve ever found the truly fit people in your gym to be intimidating instead of inspirational, you might be attracted to this concept.

Downsize Fitness is an exclusive club for men/women who feel uncomfortable working out in standard gyms among muscle-heads and skinny minnies.

Owner Francis Wisniewski “made the decision to open a gym for overweight individuals when he realized he was not alone in being uncomfortable at typical gyms. Through a supportive team-oriented environment and trainer-based workout plans, the hope is to get overweight individuals healthy and fit. ”

The rule is that you must be at least 50 lbs overweight to attend, as per the website. And once you achieve a certain amount of success, attendees may graduate to “mentor” status where they guide others to follow in their footsteps.

While part of me definitely understands the logic behind this, I don’t know if I’m behind it 100%.

Surely, the owner of this business has identified a consumer behaviour that he, himself, has demonstrated. And why shouldn’t he be able to capitalize on that recognition?

Yet another side of me wonders if this is discriminatory. If someone is 40lbs overweight, are they not fit to join? Are there strict rules outlining these things, or is it simply socially upheld that certain people don’t “belong” there?

What do you fine people think? Irony or community?

Our Art Director urges you NOT to be afraid of white space.

What is white space?
Why is it important?
And more importantly, why do clients seem to be afraid of it?

In a nutshell: white space is the key to elegant design, and a way to create easy navigation.

Your brand in the forefront
Want your logo or product to shine above the rest? Drape it with white space.

By adding white space around your logo/product, the focus stays on just that; your logo/product. No distractions of buttons, tag lines, or competing images to tempt users to move onto something else. For websites, the same applies for any crucial ‘call to action’ buttons. If you require a high click-through for a particular button, make that button easy to see.

Navigation
White space ‘connects the dots,’ and makes for easy navigation. Having too much clutter around any points of interests or key elements just clouds the judgment of where users need to go. If you want your user to click from point A to B to C, the white space surrounding those elements makes it clear.

Faster Interaction
More white space also increases the speed with which your user interacts with your product. That’s because it literally clears a path. Websites that are packed with too much content in tight spaces lead to more time spent hunting, and more needless frustration.

Clean design means you care
A website that looks nice, clean and elegant means that the company actually cares. Time was spent making sure that things look and work just right.

Think about a messy house vs a clean one. Which would you find most inviting? Which would you want to avoid?

White space can be tricky. If not used properly, it can harm more than help your cause. It’s also often viewed as a waste of space, or even laziness! But I believe that white space is incredibly powerful. A true must if you’re looking for strong design and interaction.

It’s understandable that clients want to give as much information as possible, we just need to be aware of how all that information is delivered. Designing is like telling a story, and it needs to be read in a proper way. That is, not all in one shot.

Despite the somewhat awkward acting in this promo video, this seems pretty awesome. (Plus, the leading man has an impressive headful of hair.)

Instead of scrambling for a wireless key that you once jotted down in epileptic chicken-scratch, this program lets you grant WiFi access to your friends. Or revoke it just as easily from your friends-no-more. Observe:

Say the developers of the program:

“Mobile networks are controlled by hundreds of mobile operators while Wi–Fi is controlled by millions of hotspot owners. Therefore the tools we are building put the owners first. They allow Wi-Fi owners to share their networks in a safe and secure manner with people they trust, regardless of if that Wi-Fi is in an apartment, a house, a restaurant, or on a spaceship.”
(Instabridge Blog)

Bringing power to the people by bringing WiFi to the people.

That’s something I can really believe in.