Late last year, I was approached by good friend, colleague and fellow cyclist, Damion Hickman to help create a logo and identity for a new bicycle company. His firm, Damion Hickman Design had just landed the business and the company owner was under a huge time crunch to make the Interbike show in Las Vegas. Needless to say, we had to get on it.
The company, Pivot Cycles was building a line of high-end mountain bikes with some very innovative frame and suspension design. Design direction was to keep the logo clean and able to work on a bicycle frame easily. The other requirement was to have a logo that could potentially work in a one-color application for laser-etching on to the powder-coated frame. Laser etching is very durable and lasts much longer than silkscreening or other decal applications (especially in the mud and rocks).
Damion and I have worked on many logo projects together over the years. He often brings me in on designs that may need hand lettering or custom typefaces. In this situation, we tried both.
Here are a couple of the completed designs including a catalog photo of one of the etched frames. The first being the final approved version and the other being one of the hand lettered solutions. Yes, I use good old India ink and a round brush on various types of papers, etc. Old school.
