Bicycle Company Logo

Putney Bikes

We are a start-up bicycle company that builds high performance steel road racing and cyclocross bikes. The focus of the company is to build “real bikes for real riders”. Basically this is to buck the trend of the never ending escalation of lighter and lighter, higher performance, more and more expensive carbon bicycles that end up being more advertising bill boards and status symbols than anything else.

We are looking for TWO components to be designed. The company logo that will go on the head tube of the bike and the text/graphics to go on the side of the bike. (See examples in the pictures)

The company’s tag line is “Authentic bikes for authentic riders”. The target market is bike racers or serious riders.

We are inspired by the dictionary definition we found for “authentic” : “truthfulness or origins, attributions, commitments, sincerity and intentions”

We hope our line of bikes gets bike racers to focus on the sport of racing, their love and passion of bikes and step away from the image conscious, “try to look like a pro” and emulate your favorite pro rider, high priced world that the sport has become. We don’t believe in riding bill boards. We started this company with the simple questions, “When did bike racing stop being a grass roots sport of people who loved to ride and feel the wind in their face?” "What happened to just riding hard for the sheer fun of it?" "When did racers stop also being bike commuters?" "How can we bring that sense of joy of being a kid on a bike back to the sport?"

The additional images are of bikes of other companies that we admire (We like their aesthetic). While most are side pictures of the bikes (and don’t show the head tube), it might help give a better sense of what we are and are not. I have also included pictures of bikes that are NOT what we are about, so you can see the other side of the coin.

Head Tube Logo (on front of bike)

The brand name is “Putney Bikes” but it is not necessary to have the name in the logo on the head tube (front of the bike). If it does have the name, “bikes” should be left out. The logo should be more about an iconic recognizable shape more than text (see some of the examples below…how companies use their initials in iconic ways).

We are looking for a simple, elegant logo for the “head tube” of the bike (see image 1 for reference to where this goes on the frame). Eventually, this will be a stamped badge made of aluminum that is attached to the head tube, but at this early stage it will be a simple decal. Ideally the design will easily translate to a stamped badge. Colors should be limited, if not a single color. Some head tube logos are also included below to give you a sense of what we like.

Frame Logo (on tubes viewed from the side)

This is the logo that has the company name that would go on the side of the bike. The requirement for this is that it contains the name “Putney”. As you can see in examples, this is more of a font issue more than anything else. Few graphics are involved in this logo.

Also, as mentioned, the goal of the company is to be more about riding than a billboard. So if you can figure out a way to make the side logo subtle and yet at the same time help us build brand recognition we would be very excited! There is no requirement to have the company name in the traditional places on a bike, we are open to your ideas. Can you make it subtle yet make our brand easily recognizable?

We like the idea of "Ham Sa", sanskrit for "I am that" or "I am that I am", but have not found a Ham Sa symbol drawing that works. Feel free to incorporate this if you can.