Revolution JDRF Ride for Diabetes Research - Raising awareness through better design
Since 1988 the JDRF Ride for Diabetes Research event has raised over $50 million. Teams of volunteers each collectively raise a minimum of $625 to participate. The event naming and re-branding was proposed as a strategy to raise public awareness and interest in an attempt to increase participation, attract more donors, and raise earnings for research.
As lead designer I was brought on to develop creative outcomes for naming, identity directions, visual language, and copy writing. The work currently being produced for the client was uncreative and stodgy, lacking in dynamism and vision. My involvement within the project was to develop visual directions from an original perspective offering a youthful, energetic flair.
I developed a family of components to be used interchangeably throughout the design program as a method for maintaining unexpected arrangements of the identity. This proposal was enthusiastically accepted from the initial presentation. The circular icon is divided into quadrants, each representing the direction of force exerted from a cyclist within the motion of spinning with clipless pedals. The disparate parts also suggest the collective nature of team sport, collaboration, and the building of community.
As an avid cyclist, I wanted to invest the identity with a concept referencing a core aspect of the activity. One of the fundamental pleasures derived from cycling is the ability to cycle as far and, in some cases, as fast as automobiles. Clipless pedals are features increasing safety, stability, and the ability to more efficiently transfer energy directly into the bicycle drive train. Clipless pedals clip the cyclist directly into the pedals, thus providing the opportunity to apply pressure 360-degrees throughout the entire pedal cycle. Riders can push down, pull up, push forward, and pull backward, providing energy at all times. This strategy called “spinning” has been designed centrally within the symbol by representing the four quadrants of the pedal cycle with interchangeable components.
It was clear coming in to the project that the creative team had limited experience with cycling. As a result, the messaging, conceptual directions, and visual proposals for addressing the original design brief felt canned, uninspired, and lacked ambition. Copywriting that had been generated by a hired writer felt dorky and awkward. I was inspired by the energy and speed of cycling as a core driver for the visual language. I drew reference from the bold use of imagery and short, aspirational messaging found in early political and socialist propaganda posters. The graphic weight of simplified imagery worked well with supporting graphic textures and extreme cropping of the logo system as background elements. I proposed a series of punchy, aspirational messages that alluded to collective teamwork and collaboration within the struggle to do good against seemingly overwhelming odds. Reversed graphic images of stationery cycling equipment served as a form of punctuation.
In order to reach a broad audience the visual language was extended into web-based media. I included a set of splash screens that articulated an interest for developing a responsive website for event registration that was mobile-ready. A bold use of imagery communicated the message vibrantly with a simple call to action. The use of constantly-changing imagery leveraged the attributes of the internet as dynamically as possible. This provided the opportunity to take advantage of the full range of imagery built into the visual language to keep the message fresh while reinforcing the underlying concept of collaboration and team-based participation.
