How do you ‘rebrand’ something we love this much?
Our first bike didn’t have a brand mark as such. Sam Dunn who illustrated the bike just went for it.
You might have noticed we’ve got a new brand mark for Spoon Customs. We’re also working on some new head badge designs, and just generally thinking about how we show up. Especially in the context of new bikes. Here, I thought you might like to hear about some of the process to date.
When I started the company it was just me, working out of a workshop in France trying to make a bike company. At the time I worked with our now long term collaborator James Worton on the very first logos. It was pretty involved but I basically asked him to come up with something classic that would have some hot wheels vibes, a nostalgic feel, but something ultimately that could highlight the lines on our down tube.
The position and final design was largely directed by the SLF HX shaped down-tube that we specced on the original Izoard RR. The logo sits on the imaginary line on the ‘bottom’ of the shaped tube and reaches around to the more angular edge.
It looked right, and still does. I love it in fact. That mark landed well and continues to serve us faithfully.
The first brand marks were designed to sit on the HSS downtube in our Izoard RR bike. Seen here whilst editing some shots from the cliffs near the tunnel in Claviere.
That’s why this change feels significant. It’s not replacing it as such but it’s helping us move into other stuff including into bigger down-tubes and new adventures.
Lockdown gave us a bit of time to think it through. That process led us to think about who we are now and where we’re heading and where we’ve been. It was clear we needed to make something clearer, that would anchor the brand.
Half way through that process I got back out to Montgenevre to get some headspace. I rode Col D’Echelle, Sestriere, and of course, Izoard. All the time thinking about how special this whole place was. Of all of the climbs, Izoard still makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck and it authentically feels like a part of what we’ve done or do.
Our new brand mark is inspired by the landscape here, at the Col D’Izoard. This place is part of who we are.
Why? Firstly, it’s a great climb. Probably my favourite anywhere, but it’s special not just because we developed our most successful bike here and named it after it, but because of a moment I had on that climb.
The moment came when I was riding there in September 2017, three months after the launch of the first proper bike at Brooks in London. Nothing odd in that really - I’d been guiding and riding that climb as much as I could, but this time I wasn’t on a development frame. I was on the finished bike that we’d given to Cyclist Magazine for review.
They’d hung on to it for what felt like forever, so I’d been itching to get out on it and it had to be that climb. It was just an ordinary day in any respect. I wasn’t expecting surprises. I’d gone really well up to the hairpins at the Napoleon Refuge. I remember fishing my phone out of my pocket having felt the usual vibration. I glanced at it and could see an email from Peter Stuart (Cyclist Magazine) to say our review had been published.
I was terrified. I put the phone straight back into my jersey. Seeing it made my legs feel heavy but I couldn’t stop to read it, in case it was bad. If I waited and it was bad, at least I’d be at the top.
Stopped at the Summit, I stood astride the top tube of our first proper Izoard RR and I read the PDF of the first review of the Spoon Customs Izoard RR.
It was a good review.
In that moment, in that place, with that bike, we had the start we needed.
Like the first marks did, the new ones started out on a drawing board at home. Finding and drawing typefaces that might work with a device that showed the angle of repose from Col D’Izoard.
Above all else, that’s why the new brand mark represents that place. The angle of the cuts on the letters in the logo represents that climb. Specifically the scree slopes of the Casse Deserte.
The slope there is unique thanks to the angle of repose. If you’re a skier you’ll recognise the term from avalanche training. The size of the particles and the coefficient of friction all contribute to a unique angle (of repose).
Like a finger print, for that place.
It matches the angle on our new logo, and it’s a reminder of where we come from and where we started, home if you like. The place and landscape that inspires everything we do.
The new brand marks are live on the website and will start showing up on bikes in the new year. The new Spoon SnapBack is live on our website and shipping now.
