Bandwagon Graphiks

Two years ago I set out to buy a bike. Two years later, I had no idea where it was going to take me. From daily commuting anywhere from 8-15 miles all the way to bike advocating, centuries, and now triathlons; this trip has been a wild roller coaster of awesome. On top of that I have made an example of myself to colleagues, co-workers and clients. People are genuinely enthused when I pull up on a bicycle. In fact on a recent trip to my printer in downtown LA [18 miles from my office] – my pressman actually took me outside and took a picture of me on my bike in front of the building. He said in 30 years of business, I was the first client to ever pick up a job on a bicycle. That makes me proud.

A lot of you out there are already reading this and making excuses as to why you can’t ride a bike to work or a client meeting. No worries, I have been making the same excuses along with you. Its too far, I have to bring a lot of stuff, I dont want to be all sweaty…sound familiar?

Sure, bike commuting and getting to client meetings as a freelance graphic designer has its difficulties – and of course you’re going to have those times when you have a 40lb box of booklets that no one wants to carry on a bike. However think about all those meetings we have where its just a consultation, or a meet and greet, or a paperless presentation, invoice pick up, etc etc – how much gas and oil are we as freelancers consuming to get from point A to point B as a freelancer?

We already have been embracing the green movement ten fold in the design community these past few years. We have recycled papers, forest service certifications, reused materials, green officers, soy inks – the list goes on. But we never seem to mention the transportation of these materials in our righteous green movement talks. The fact of the matter is, there is an alarming percentage of people out there that commute less than 10 miles to work everyday, shoot I would bet less than 5 miles – and none of these drivers consider cycling. Their cars clog the streets, pollute the air and guzzle gas. I’m not trying to be a righteous bike rider here – I’m just trying to spark some passion in people to have some freaking responsibility. I may be part of a very select group, but I buck up, pack up and ride every where I can…and for the record – I do own a car, its license plates say GFK DZNR

That’s my rant, now on to a real life triumph that occurred just this week.

My good biker friend @danceralamode, you can read her car-free blog here – has been on me like white on rice to keep reducing my dinosaur driving since becoming freelance. I tell her, dude I’m freelance – one minute I’m downtown at my printer for a press check, the next I’m in Encino for a client meeting. I may not be able to go completely car-free being freelance but there are two things I have mastered since going full time freelance again 6 months ago – one: public restrooms & two: public transportation. Since January, I have mastered a route to my printer, combining public transportation and mastered getting to client meetings by bike with the help of Starbucks with their nice clean restrooms.

On Wednesday, I had a consultation at an old clients office in Woodland Hills, clear cross the valley – 20 miles from my office. Normally I would have jumped in the DZN mobile and stressed myself out while driving. This day was different. I was finally going to do something difficult on my bike. I don’t know about you, but for me during a consultation – I usually have to bring sample books with me – some heavy and cumbersome. I also need a laptop, notebook, and all my usual riding gear. This client is slightly laid back, but I could not roll up in jean shorts and bikers cap – I needed to be in business casual.

So the night before I mapped my route and decided to combine my ride with a tourney on the LA Metro Orange line bus – this was going to keep me from being uber sweaty – but I still had to make it work. I threw the bike rack on my race bike [a major faux pas] and a pannier hanging off one side.

Come the morning, I stuffed my suit coat and briefcase into the pannier, rolled my non wrinkling dress pants up, and filled my trunk pack with paper books. The bike was so heavy. But once you get rolling, you don’t really feel the odd weight distribution. It becomes part of the bike and your body just makes due. Its when you stop that you have to be watchful of the bike toppling over.

The orange line a 6 miles from my house, but luckily stops within blocks of my client – so I used the time on the bus to cool down and get organized. A short 20 minutes later – I was at my clients…in a whopping 45 minutes total of riding bike/bus. It would have taken me the same amount of time by car at that time of day if not more.

After arriving I spent a couple minutes cooling, straightening my clothes and hair – and VOILA…designer on a bike at your service. Meeting started and ended without my client even guessing that I rode in – it ended up coming up in casual conversation later, but they would have never guessed had I not told them.

And so, that’s one for the books. It’s not my first bike ride to a client, just my first so far from the studio where I actually had to carry materials and be presentable.

In other instances I have utilized public restrooms to change from bike gear to business wear [Starbucks have nice public restrooms ]…but there are so many clothing designers out there now make great apparel that is business and biker friendly – that I’m going in that direction. The lighter and faster you can make the ride the better.

I can’t tell you how many clients are in love with the fact that I ride to their meetings, people are so used to it now, that they are always asking me if I rode my bike in, can they see it – oh we want to watch you roll away. It’s like I’m a celebrity or something. All I did was use my legs to get somewhere.

Sure, being in LA – with public transportation getting better by the day and more bike infrastructure being slowly added, its a tad easier than say small town Texas where I’ve read bikers are sometimes looked at as target practice. But LA’s bike infrastructure is not that great, we have barely any – cities like Tucson which have hundreds of miles of bike lane – yet face the same problems we do in LA.

When it comes to bike commuting, its all about being safe, be aware of your surrounding, be courteous to the drivers, and ride your bike like you drive your car. I’ve gotten about 5 people on bikes and commuting since I have started and they are always skeptical at first, then like a fog was lifted – they get it and realize that yes, they can do this.

So take me and my fellow car-free/car-light brethren…YOU CAN DO THIS!

**Plus I’ve lost like 30lbs since starting the commuting, and thrown out all my anxiety medication**

I recently had a conversation with another design buddy Art Meier – in response to a training tweet I posted about having fallen off the training wagon and drowning in boredom. It happens to the best of us, we all go through our funks where despite a proverbial mountain of work – you just want to sit there and stare at the wall. Sort of like back in the day when your PC melted before your eyes, and rebooted only to display the dreaded blinking cursor.

Anyways, Art sort of pushed me to take this blog in a somewhat different more personal direction in order to get me to update it more often. Up until now – I’ve treated this blog as place to update the world on the latest projects, commercial work, and tips and tricks for other freelancers. I suppose even for me, the author, its boring. But what to write about?

Well something I’m beyond passionate about is cycling. Thru and thru, I’m so into bikes, I want to have my bikes babies. It’s bad. Well no, its good, but to non-bikers out there…I’ve got a sick and twisted addiction that dinosaur drivers have no concept of. I train like a mad woman, over 400 miles a month if I’m being lazy and 500 in a good month without rolling a century. [A century is riding 100+ miles in one day] – I’m working towards my first triathlon in September/October – but more than that – I love riding. I started two years ago – just commuting to work – and slowly as time passed, became stupidly addicted.

Don’t worry, I won’t blather on about just bikes, but more how bikes and design collide in my life. How I balance training with my design work. Where does the graphic designer & cyclist meet? and how all of this has effected my work. Art could tell you, he witnessed it, maybe I overheard him say “this girl needs help”.

It was during this years Y-Conference in San Diego. On the last night as we were walking to the end of conference party – I spied a beauty. A bike so pretty and well designed that I nearly peed my pants. Here she is…

To some of you, you might just see an old bike with no bells and whistles. To me, I see a great piece of Italian steel from the grand age of bike design, back when carbon fiber was not in the vocabulary of cycling. I see a pristine paint job with perfect script logo. Where simple meets elegant. Bottecchia is brand of bicycles dating back to the 1920′s – and the brand is still alive today.

I’m a sucker for arresting typography like most of you out there, and this is one of my favorite Bottecchia logos. Most experienced cyclists will tell you when you are looking to buy a bike, to not let the graphics of the bike play into your decision too much, you need a bike that fits your body. Well being a graphic designer, thats impossible for me. I find bikes that a designed beautifully then cross my fingers that they work for me.

I recently found this beauty on a bike site I peruse often, she’s 3 centimeters too big for me, but you know what….she just might be my fourth child soon. Im in love with the eastern european color scheme…probably b/c she reminds me of it so much.

What I find really intriguing about bike design over the last 50 years or so, is how along with the design of the bike – the logos change – nearly every year. With design these days, its all about the brand. Everything has to match and communicate over the years, the logotype is the sole image tying your products together – brand recognition is huge. So why do so many bikes from years past and even now – have multiple logo types on their products?

I’m a huge fan of thick scripty fonts, so upon seeing this beauty – I melted. But previous years Bottecchia logos were more sans serif almost constructivist feeling, while current models have this bad-ass fast and furious treatment.

Taking a look as some of the recent ads for TS Performance, you’ll notice I’ve been working the scripty fonts in with the grungy fonts – a little Creampuff with a little Dirty Headline. Sure, the demographic for these ads is mostly males, who don’t necessarily respond to “girly” fonts, but I’ve always felt that a mix of styles is a nice way to keep the ad interesting. Sort of like when you bite into some Tempura Shrimp Ahi Tuna sushi and get that mix of temperatures. I like combining different senses within my design, and recreating that funny feeling, in hopes that the ad stays with you longer. It’s a little preference I picked up while working on so many automotive ads, they are so often quite type heavy and busy, so as a designer I have to keep it interesting, keep it fresh, and not create a wall of type.

No matter how awesome your really cool grunge font is, if its the only font you use – you might as well just load it up with Helvetica. Make something that plays with the eyes and keeps the viewer moving around the page. Remember the Golden Curve from Design 101? May have been a boring lesson back in the day, but I actually think about it still with every new project…you would be surprised.

In the end, we’ve established that I am a bike hugging nutcase, that was easy – and bike design will continue to amaze me – I have many more images of rad bikes that I’ve come across in my daily travels. Tomorrow, I’ll do a post on the Da Vinci Bike.

Come one come all – the wagon is calling your name.

Throughout the summer Bandwagon is offer a bunch of goodies to new clients and referrals, including package incentives for multiple orders and payment plans for higher budget projects.

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