I Made a Fake Planet Fitness Sign

First off, an apology for those who still bother reading this thing. I blame my social media doomscrolling for killing this blog that I have owned for almost 11 years but sometimes you have to go into great detail to explain or show things, more detail than the average social media user will even bother with. So let’s get into it.

I have been a member of Planet Fitness for close to two years now, even longer if you count my previous stints. I had to cancel in 2018 after Ann was diagnosed with kidney cancer because we were unsure of what was going to happen and I stayed around to make sure she was okay. I joined again in 2022 once we were sure.

I enjoy their no-nonsense approach to working out, the “everyone is welcome” philosophy, and low monthly rate. I’ve made it a habit to go a minimum of three days a week (M-F) and have stuck to that, plus I walk 5 miles around the neighborhood one day and rest on another. It’s the one schedule I actually adhere to.

The facilities are typically roomy and there are enough machines for everyone with few exceptions. I can get a good workout in before I head to work whether I’m driving to the office or working from home. In short, Planet Fitness works for me.

Except for one thing: the toilets.

You see, my location has a mere two stalls in the men’s room and one of them is often out of order. It’s been working lately but in the past it was a nightmare if you had to wait for the only open stall — even worse if the person in the stall was on their phone.

How would I know this? Simple. The recessed lighting in the restrooms throw hard shadows and their phone is clearly visible in said shadow. And if you had to use the restroom badly and the only stall wasn’t being used…yeah. It’s not a good situation to be in.

It got me so annoyed that I planned something devious: to make a sign clearly stating that phone usage was not acceptable in the restroom stalls. Actually, it goes against PF’s policy to use phones in general anywhere but the lobby but people do it anyway. (There’s actually a guy at my location who live streams his workouts and does a Q&A at the same time, which is super annoying when he’s using the machine I want to use next.)

But I wasn’t just going to scribble something on the flap of an old Amazon box and tape to the inside of the stall. No way. I was going the extra mile to make it was convincingly accurate so that everyone would think it’s real.

I started by studying the signs. Most locations have several of them with styles that have changed over the years. This one, for example, is an old one as is evident by the extensive use of the meshed gears, distressed font in the body copy, and outdated icons at the bottom right:

As the designs evolved, they became much more clean. The Rockwell font was still in use but no longer distressed, and it’s also worth noting that body copy on the older signs was exclusively in lower case in keeping with their trademarked, stylized company name. Kind of like “it’s a small world” at Disneyland and the opposite of LEGOLAND which is trademarked in all caps. The one constant of each sign was the yellow border and dominant purple background.

Another change to the design was “thank you!” being changed to the Lobster font. Remember folks, I was an art major in college. Don’t ask why I’ve wasted nearly 20 years of my life proofreading, okay?

Once I thought I had all the pieces I needed, I started by composing the copy in a loose yet effective tone. I then grabbed my iPad, found the Planet Fitness logo in PNG format, opened Procreate, and messed with two designs for about a week, fine tuning them after each gym visit. And here they are.

Sign 1 (newer style):

Sign 2 (older, lower case style):

I wasn’t really sure which one I was going to use since both of them have different messages but drive home the same point: shit or get off the pot. Ultimately, I decided against my guerilla art project and left both files on my iPad, never to be seen by anyone — until now.

If anything, it was a fun exercise in seeing what I could come up with as well as a way to blow off steam over something so problematic. Oh, and the part number on the bottom left? It’s an Easter egg: our anniversary date.

Fortunately, I haven’t encountered this problem lately but should it become an issue again…I’m ready!