Student Work

Bespoke Mountain Bikes Visual Identity

Overview

To refresh my graphic design skills, I decided to take the Graphic Design Masterclass by Lindsay Marsh on Udemy, which is a self-directed video course. As part of this course, students were challenged to create a logo for a brand called Bespoke Mountain Bikes. I decided to also extend this into the beginnings of a visual identity.

This fictional brand sells custom-made mountain bikes, and “Bespoke” is a play on the word “spoke.” Men make up their primary target audience, although women purchase their bikes as well. Bespoke’s outdoor-loving clientele is adventurous and loves to take risks. The ideal logo would look good small, as they primarily advertise online. In addition, they plan on putting the logo on their bikes, apparel, and other merchandise. The owners of Bespoke are fond of bold, sans serif typefaces and simple, yet strong brand symbols; the examples they provided of logos they appreciate either featured letters or mountains making up the core logomark.

As a part of the in-house marketing team, I completed various creative tasks. I was responsible for:

Creating new print and social media post designs for marketing campaigns, program information, industry news/updates, events, or internal communications
Updating existing design files with updated loan officer/realtor information
Managing and adding content to both the existing website and company's internal intranet dashboard
Proofreading designed material
Attending marketing meetings
Narrating and editing internal tutorial videos for loan officers
Writing or editing blog posts
Communicating with other internal staff outside of the marketing department when needed in order to obtain project objectives and send deliverables

I had multiple projects assigned to me at any given time. I worked alongside other designers and marketing specialists. Tasks were divided up between the members of the team, and we all had to communicate effectively to make sure all projects for our loan officers and company were completed and accurate.

Programs used: Adobe InDesign, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Canva, Teamwork, Microsoft Teams, Adobe Premiere Pro, etc.

The Logo Design Process

I started the design process by saving a selection of logos that served as inspiration. I then began to digitally sketch out some ideas, some focusing on the idea of the “spoke,” some exploring the shapes of a bike, and some using imagery of mountains. While most of these are concepts that were not nearly strong enough to be developed, I let myself freely sketch anything that came to mind. Below are my initial rough sketches:

Following this, I opened Adobe Illustrator started to digitize what I thought at the time was my best option - a simplified representation of the handles and front wheel of a mountain bike housed within the letter B. After some time away, however, I realized that I had moved away from the strong, adventurous feeling that would best resonate with the target audience.

I revisited the project and took a look at existing mountain bike brand logos and found a common thread: many alluded to motion by using an angled, sporty typeface, and some featured imagery of mountains. After some trial and error, I arrived at an option that incorporated such a typeface and combined the letter B with stylized mountains. I chose the font called Speed from Creative Market and Outfit from Google Fonts; Speed is attention-grabbing and has the sporty feel often seen in mountain bike and racing logos, while Outfit provides contrast and is also a solid, clean font to use throughout the rest of the brand materials. I chose to combine the "S" with the "E" and "P" in the word "Bespoke" to further support the concept of motion.

The first attempt at the concept didn’t quite strike me as dynamic and the mountains felt simply tacked onto the B; to combat this, I reworked the mountains, simplifying them and reflecting the angles used in the typeface while extending them downward, further unifying them with the letter. The end result captures the feeling of boldness and adventure needed to appeal to the target market.

Below, you can see the evolution of the logo concept, with the final version (excluding variations) on the right:

The Final Logo Variations and Color Palette

I made sure to make the logo responsive for different uses, creating vertical, horizontal, logomark-only, and wordmark-only versions.

I picked orange, dark gray, and white as the brand's color palette. Using orange for the main brand color provides an energetic feel, while the dark gray provides a sense of stability and masculinity. In terms of accessibility, due to color contrast levels, text should favor using combinations of either orange and dark gray or white and dark gray; orange and white should, in general, mainly be used for larger text or graphic elements.

Examples of Branded Materials

After completing the logo design and defining brand colors, I felt it was time to extend the visual identity to various branded materials, both digital and physical.

Digital Ad Example

Since Bespoke Mountain Bikes primarily advertises online, I created an example of what a digital ad could potentially look like using Adobe Photoshop. I took care to make the text easy to read but eye-catching due to the usage of contrasting and dynamic type, while pairing it with a photo from Pexels that showed a mountain biker in motion. "Crafted for Trailblazers" is a simple statement that alludes to the fact that Bespoke creates custom bikes for its adventurous clientele. "Create Your Next Ride" serves as the call to action and also makes reference to the bikes' customization options.

Print Ad Example

Despite Bespoke mainly doing business online, they would also most likely have printed ads in circulation. Using Adobe Photoshop, I designed an example of one of these advertisements, using a photo from Unsplash. I wanted this ad to remain simple, like the one I had designed for digital channels, while effectively driving home the feeling of adventure and risk; this informed my decision to choose a photo of a mountain biker jumping high in the air and the actionable tagline, "Get Out There." Similar to the digital ad, this print ad also features orange, slanted text to convey the notion of energy. I rotated the main text slightly for more visual energy and made it so the biker was interacting with the text itself, with portions of the letters going through the wheels. To further add dynamics to this composition, I made the majority of the photo grayscale (using the brand's particular gray as a base) and kept only the biker in color; this added a clear focal point and interesting contrast.

Website Page Example

Due to Bespoke Mountain Bike's emphasis on online presence and sales, I came up with the hypothetical design for their eCommerce website's homepage. My main objective with this site design was to clearly and effectively communicate the brand's personality and offerings within a short amount of time, while still having plenty of information available at first glance, making buyers feel informed and confident in their decision. For this project, I only developed a design for the mobile version of the site, following the mobile-first ideology; this website would be available on all devices if it were a real project.

I began by sketching out a rough, low-fidelity wireframe to visualize my plan. I wanted the hero section of the homepage to drive home the same adventurous sentiment as the previous advertisements. The sections that followed would provide information on the brand itself, its product offerings, and how they are involved with the larger mountain bike community. Products would be shown in a carousel/slider format to provide clean, focused information. I chose to add video in the sections pertaining to the brand itself and the stories from the biking community in order to provide a richer, more impactful experience than just text on a page.

After drawing this initial wireframe, I began to develop the idea into a digital prototype in Figma. While I didn't add full functionality (such as carousel slider animation) to this prototype, I made sure to utilize a consistent representation of the visual identity throughout. I added in some softer grays and paid close attention to properly adapting the brand to the digital space while prioritizing accessibility. I presented most pertinent information in short snippets on the homepage so that the user could scroll through and form their overall opinion of the brand without having to click through multiple pages. In terms of the marketing language, I continued to opt for an adventurous, yet casual feel to draw in and connect with the reader.

To view the entire website homepage design, click the short video below.

Merchandise Examples

The Bespoke owners wanted a logo that would look great on various types of merchandise. I applied the logo to digital mock-ups of different items that they could potentially sell to brand enthusiasts. Colors could be changed and the logo could be applied to many other items.

Holly Salisbury-Breslin Design