Someone very helpful said to me recently that a brand is your jacket and I agreed. In this case it was a cycling jersey…
The London Dynamo cycling club had decided to update their kit design, so being both a committee member and a brand consultant, I was naturally put forward to look at various solutions. This presented a unique opportunity to be both designer and client…
Jed Harrison at the kit launch
However to design a kit that was unmistakably on brand, classic, yet modern, and to satisfy 500+ members… a reversible approach was required. Club members were actively involved in the design process and invited to vote on the final designs. This approach proved to be a successful strategy as the wining solution pulled in a large majority of the votes.
Lillian Gray standing above Frafjord, near Stavanger, Norway. Photo credit: Mark Gray
A race win at Cyclopark for Lillian Gray
What I enjoy most about design and working on building a brand is that ideas can come from anywhere and anyone who gets involved in the process. I like to use my extensive experience to notice / recognise / find / and draw out these ideas and then look at what is and what’s not likely to work, and this is how I keep the process more about you than about the way I like to design.
Developing the kit design using the Sportful 3D visual tool
Dynamos about to set off for the Girona Granfondo
Emotion is the backbone of designs, it’s the fabric that holds everything together and I invest just as much into the process personally as my clients. Your brand is about you, your service or your product and this journey involved me too. Like a peloton, we were all along for the ride.
Jed riding towards the Rocacorba mountain in Girona
Girona Granfondo finishers. A well earned celebration!
The collaborative effort of both designer and client, is to create something that stands out amongst its competitors, a cycling kit design has to do exactly this in a peloton of racers – you’d struggle to get a better visual metaphor.
Bottom line, we wanted a kit to be be proud of and most club members are now wearing it with pride – which, I have to say, as a designer, is one of the proudest feelings I’ve ever had. We now have a modern kit that leaves enough room to evolve as the club moves into the future