More Bicycles, Less Traffic

We sold our car nearly two years ago. We live a car free life in Denver. Two kids and no car.

I began a photography series of folks riding bicycles.

Our family takes RTD, we walk a lot and we ride bikes everywhere! We have options on how to get places. I have never been a cyclist. I don’t own spandex and I don’t want to go fast or ride down mountains. Shout out to those who do. I encroach on those folks territory. We collectively are given very little space in the city. If you have been a weekend warrior and riding your bikes for years to go fast I can understand why when I show up in your path with a bakfiets full of kids and groceries you aren’t exactly excited to see me.

The photography series has transitioned into a series of posters celebrating the joy of bicycles. I went to school or graphic design. Before the world of UX/UI design was fully established. My graphic design skills are not great and out of practice. Yet it is still fun to make random things.

Here is the process for one of those weekend projects!

Original Photos

Black & White Versions

I really love both these images in black & white. Maybe that says the photos weren’t great to start with.

Textures

The trend when I was in college was to layer textures onto photos in photoshop to create a grunge aesthetic. I spent time photographic concrete to create texture packs. I soaked good paper in coffee for varying links of times to create more textures to overlay. We attempted to many affects using scanners and printers. All that to say that aesthetic has come back. Shortly after college the skeuomorphic movement was in full swing. Apps were built to mimic things in real life. We came out of that to a very simplified & flat design world. Thank Material design.

It seems we are headed back towards more of mix. Folks are digging into those past efforts of making something look like it wasn’t just in the digital world. Textures are back. You get bonus points of you make something off the screen. All of my friends have taken a pottery class in the last year. The pandemic seems to have given us time to live fully in the digital world and now we want to run from it.

Illustrator iterations

Exploring in illustrator. Sketch. Figure out what to say. I have been using mostly the same content throughout the poster series.

Final variations

Jump back into photoshop for more layers and textures to wrap up these explorations. Not entirely happy with where we ended up and it was fun to make things. Enjoy your day!