Client
Wenner Cycles
Background
Boutique custom bike builder, John Wenner, had been building custom road and hard tail mountain bikes for customers for years. But then he leveled up and got some accomplished bicycle and aerospace engineers involved to design a unique high-pivot mountain bike.
Challenge
The plan was to take the design from single prototypes to full production. The challenge was that he didn’t really have a brand to speak of. He’d been using the name Wenn Cycles and just a basic block font. In order to “go pro” with the product line, he needed a professional brand.
Solution
The first task was to create a dynamic, memorable logo that would connect with the mountain bike culture. But before jumping on the task of design I suggested rethinking the name of the brand. While Wenn was something that would work, I thought that using his full last name Wenner was a more direct connection to the man behind the brand that his core fans already knew. In addition, the name Wenner sounds more like an action verb that has more flow when you sound it out. It also looks and sounds close to the word “winner”, which we all want to be! So Wenner Cycles was born.
The next task was to design the logo. I started experimenting with letter forms and eventually struck on a “W” that when flipped over doubles as the two “N’s”. This design could look cool as an animation where the logo spins around the center axis of the “E” between the “W” and “NN”.
Once the logo was finalized I went to work creating the design for jerseys and shorts that John and his sponsored riders could wear during mountain bike competitions.
Video interview about Wenner Cycles and the high-pivot bike design. Watch on Vimeo.
