The Bicycle Alliance
2017
While in Ann Arbor, I had an opportunity to create an identity for a local bicycle advocacy group, The Bicycle Alliance, that helped expand my design skillset to include visual identity
and brand development.
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ABOUT THE CLIENT
Bradley Parsons and Nate Phillips were the visionaries behind a proposed centering space for the Washtenaw Ann Arbor area bicycle advocates known as Bicycle Alliance. Their proposed mission for the Bicycle Alliance was to serve as a centering space for area advocates to better organize efforts aimed at making our area more bicycle friendly. Their ultimate goal was to get more people on more bikes more often.
The Problem. Many of the bicycle organizations that currently exist in the Ann Arbor and Washtenaw County area do not communicate with each other.
The Ask. Create a visual identity to represent and foster a greater collaboration amongst various individual bicycle organizations that includes a definitive name, logo, logotype, and supporting signage and branding materials.
THE IDEA
I wanted to create a visual identity that was inviting and accessible to both bikers and community safety advocates alike. The logo and identity would act as a unifier of the many unique bicycling organizations that currently exist in the Washtenaw area and encourage a sense of community, support, and understanding between them. It would inspire both individuals and established biking organizations to become a part of the larger biking community known as The Bicycle Alliance.
THE LOGO
I wanted the logo to be representative of a network of diverse organizations coming together to address all individual interests under this single, united front that is The Bicycle Alliance. The idea of individual biking communities combining their shared, but also unique goals and objectives to form a united front was essential inspiration for my design thinking.
I began sketching with the image of a bicycle wheel in mind, playing on the idea of individual pieces or parts coming together to form one unit. I also experimented with other parts of a bicycle such as the chain.
I enjoyed the symmetry that was being created through repetition and rotation of certain elements, and how that symmetry began to imply unity.
However, I struggled in trying to show an equal representation of each organization within The Bicycle Alliance, while also showing their individual uniqueness, without insinuating that one organization was more dominant or important than another.
With further experimentation, I discovered a love for variation in line quality and weight to represent uniqueness, and so began replicating and overlapping to form pattern.
Further play with repetition in line weights and breaks presented an opportunity to imply movement, or cycles that the wheel takes when riding a bike. The clients, being bicycle experts, saw potential for the center of the logo to become more reminiscent of a bicycle part called the “Cog”
or “Free Wheel”.
Although the logo was more closely related to the inter-workings of a bicycle wheel, it still felt very floral- or aquatic-like.
I realized this association was being made primarily due to the rounded curves of the outermost parts of the logo. I began experimenting to see what happened when the curves were progressively cut out of the logo, and alas, The Bicycle Alliance logo took shape.
I then developed a system for the logo including it’s orientation, logotype, color, and presentation possibilities to create and support The Bicycle Alliance’s identity and brand.
Offering various, but defined orientations of the logo and logotype allows for consistent use and easy implementation of the brand when used alongside or in partnership with other organizations and their branding. I established a color palette of blues for the logo, with a green secondary color palette to support both the environmental and health benefits of choosing to ride your bike. The typefaces were chosen because of how they harmonize as a serif and san serif pair.
BRAND & ASSOCIATED MARKETING MATERIALS
Once the logo and logotype were established, I began establishing other branding materials to support The Bicycle Alliance identity and its implementation into the real world. Also, I considered how it would live within the Ann Arbor - Washtenaw County area as a bicycle advocacy group.
For an organization that advocates for more bicycle use, way finding seemed pertinent to bolster The Bicycle Alliance’s mission and association with the brand. Besides traditional way finding signage that shows direction and distance, I imagined way finding more bicycle specific.
I envisioned way finding posts that indicate various routes that can be be taken to arrive at a specified location (Downtown being pictured above). The three colors of the brand are used to indicate the type of route: Fastest, Scenic, or one with the most bike lanes. The distance to the specified location from the post would be displayed on the respective banner. More detailed instructions for following the route could be found on The Bicycle Alliance website or App.
APPAREL & ACCESSORIES
ADVOCACY POSTERS & SIGNAGE
When designing posters for The Bicycle Alliance, I wanted to display all of the different variations of the logo and logotype, and use both the primary and secondary palette, to address the “5 Foot Rule" and create an association for The Bicycle Alliance with an environmentally driven celebration, while also advocating for my bicycling activity in the area.
Let’s set things in motion, together. This tagline plays on the word ‘motion’ as it pertains to both the physical motion or action of riding a bicycle and getting more individuals to participate in that motion, but also the motion to make a change in the current biking policy, safety precautions, and bicycle awareness in our not-so biker friendly communities.
Above: It is crucial that the “5 Foot Rule” be present and visualized around various parts of the community, primarily around central campus which is a high traffic area for both bicyclists and motorists.
Above: The Bicycle Alliance supporting Earth Day - an annual event celebrated on April 22nd to demonstrate support for environmental protection. One way to be more environmentally friendly is by choosing to ride your bike instead of taking the car.
I chose The Bicycle Alliance to challenge myself in creating a logo and logotype completely from scratch, with no reference point to start with such as an existing logo. Overall this identity system is meant to represent the combined greater efforts of a unifying organization composed of the many individual bicycle organizations around the Ann Arbor Washtenaw area. It will inspire a sense of community, support, and understanding between avid bicyclists and non-bicyclists alike and aligns with their mission of making our community a more bicycle friendly place.
Learn more about the collaboration on this project here.