Tough Mudder

The Toughest Event on the Planet

Visual Identity
Brand System
Web Design
Marketing Assets
Graphic Design
Actual photo from a Tough Mudder event.

Tough Mudder's Brand Strategy

Tough Mudder set out to be 'The Toughest Event on the Planet'. They had an idea for an intense mud run with obstacles engineered by British Special Forces to push humans to their physical and mental limits. However, the real secret to their success was the fostering of a community of like-minded adrenaline junkies and weekend warriors. At its core, Tough Mudder was about camaraderie.

The Tough Mudder Logo

When we started working with Tough Mudder late 2009 it wasn't really a company yet. The founders, Will & Guy, were two recent Harvard grads with a great idea and plenty of drive. To get the company off the ground, Condensed first developed their branding, including the now iconic running man logo, which has been tattooed on countless biceps. We also developed their online presence and were their agency of record for their formative years.

A badass dude jumping to the top of a huge wooden wall with the Tough Mudder logo spraypainted on it.  He's just barely gripping the top of the wall with his fingers, you can see the muscles on his arm stretched to what looks like the breaking point.  It's a sunny day.
The Tough Mudder logo shows a silhouette of a tough looking guy running in front of a huge raging fire
Tough Mudder’s logo has been applied in every way imaginable; from bumper stickers to business presentations, but the greatest compliment anyone has given our logo is getting it tattooed on their body; thousands of men and women have gotten inked.
The Tough Mudder website is the culmination of many hours of our design team listening to the Rocky soundtrack and 80s hair bands.
One day we received a scribbled sheet of paper with a bunch of 'engagement ideas' that the new CMO came up with. Out of all those half baked ideas, one stood out to us as having huge potential; a quiz for people who were on the fence about running a Mudder to find out if they were 'tough enough'. We developed the concept from sketches to finished code. The quiz was insanely successful, with over a million quiz takers, 700K of them opting-in to their mailing list!
Tough Mudder 8 bit pixelated logo - 80s retro style
Tough Mudder 'mudder man' icon

The Results

In our 4 years of working with Tough Mudder we helped them grow from a grad student thesis project, to a global phenomenon with over $200 million in annual revenue.

"We decided to work with Condensed having been impressed by their initial proposal, as they had clearly invested much time and thought into understanding our needs and requirements. We needed a team with a creative graphic design background and strong technical skills who could create a visually exciting brand which would appeal to our specific target demographics. Although we were working to a tight schedule, we were impressed by the flexibility that Condensed showed in incorporating our last minute changes and amends efficiently and with good humor, and also by the wise and considered approach they took to dealing with our, at times unworkable, suggestions. They are a top team and very easy to work with. Top marks."

Guy Livingstone – Co-Founder Tough Mudder