Every now and then a project comes along that combines a few of things in life you love and it's great, then very rarely a project comes along that combines all the things you love (family excluded), bikes, design and typography! Perfect project! Many thanks to Nick Spencer and Azione Custom Cycles for approaching me to work on the project.

 

From the start I knew I needed to produce something typographical, it just had to be done! But I wasn't sure how to achieve this on a 3d object. Then an idea came from a discussion about how Nick would be hanging his bike on his new bike room wall. The wall was in my eyes a large white blank canvas so I thought why not create a piece of artwork that compliments the bike design when he comes to hang it up. Then I thought why not combine the two and have the bike become the artwork. I drew up the artwork and placed it over the frame and with a few tweaks here I got the type to work with the frame. 
The thing I loved the most about the idea was that the design was no longer dictated by the lines and contours of the carbon bike frame which was my initial concern with the project.  
The idea I like to think has resulted in a truly unique looking final bike which is also a great looking piece without the supporting artwork to make sense of the design.

 

Nick Spencer will racing the finished bike this season, and more info on the background of this project can be found on his blog.

 

Azione make brilliant, beautiful custom bikes and deserve a lot of credit for being the forward thinking company that would actually let such a project happen. More info here.

 

Shelby painted the bike and is one of the most respected airbrush artists in the North of England, Shelby believes that every customer is unique and so is the work. Check out more of his incredible work here.

 

All outdoor photography by Sean Elliott.