A trove of RS archives loaned late 2013 came home. I haven’t touched many of the contents in a long while. Those in this picture tell a story, and it’s one of shifting focus as well as adding dimension. The gist is that by 1990 I began to look at more than the work I was doing at the bench and threw myself into a redecorating mode. My bicycles had one or two specific looks dating back to early 1975 and it was time to play with colored pencils.
The cutouts shown are a tiny sample of what’s here. This cross-section speaks to the energy I spent doodling, learning about copy and stat machines, teaching myself how to safely use X-Acto knives, and also about design systems. There were many elements I was interested in but I had to think critically and narrow choices so that they’d all work together. None of these saw the light of day.
I did this type of work on and off for at least 15 years, making small edits to my branding. The constant resetting of the table consisted of such small changes at a single time that few, if any, noticed. And when I did replace one version with what would come next, I didn’t call attention to it. I just did it.
Everything fell into place by 2007 after which revisions had to do with ink color rather than logo use, shadows, font sizes, placement on bicycles, or incorporating same into soft-goods. And by 2012 I tossed the lot of it away, knocked on the door at House Industries, and asked for a complete makeover.
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