London Edinburgh London Branding

Providing striking, memorable brand continuity for a prestigious 1400km cycling event.

2013’s London-Edinburgh-London (LEL) cycling event saw over 1,000 riders from 33 countries complete a gruelling five-day, 1400 kilometre route from the English capital to the Scottish capital and back.

LEL started in Loughton, London on 28 July, where riders began an epic journey through some of Britain’s most beautiful scenery en route to Edinburgh before returning to London. Participants carried their brevet cards, with them throughout the challenge which they have stamped at important junctures along the route.

Working with Danial Webb, director of LEL2013 I was tasked with carrying the LEL brand through each aspect of the event, as Danial explains; “It was very important for LEL to have impact and be visible to the public as well as supporting the cyclists with essential kit. Kieran seamlessly brought together multiple elements to give the brand continuity and help position LEL as a noteworthy cycling event.”

I designed a number of key articles of the LEL branding including:

– Jersey – Participating cyclists could purchase a LEL branded jersey manufactured by Force GB. Jerseys are prized by attendees who value them for years to come.

– Gilet – Matching body warming Gilets.

– Event Banners & Bunting – to help promote the brand at the controls and prologue from The Mall, London.

– Brevet Cards – These multifunction route cards aided the registration and tracking of the riders at the 20 or so controls up and down the country. They were individually names and numbered with emergency contact details and times to arrive at control points based on the rider start time. Riders typically keep these to remember the event.

– Kit Bags – With a long way to travel riders needed a way to get some fresh clothing, colour coded branded bags provided a bag drop solution.

– Completion Medal – Those who managed the epic journey received a medal for their efforts. The goal was to provide something of value that represented the effort well. It needed key information, the date, the distance and so forth but beyond this the brief was open. I chose to create a stylised mainland UK map on the reversed formed from the names of the controls the riders would visit along the route.

– Various web site elements

London Edinburgh London already had an existing logo and had also developed a website before I became involved. I needed to use some of these existing design elements whilst undertaking new graphic developments.

Using the logo as a base I created 2 patterns to be used across the range of materials. The first was developed by extrapolating the lines of the logo extended out and then colourised. This created an almost tartan pattern, very relevant for the scottish element of the ride, that could be used as a great background on both large banners and printed materials such as the route card.

A tessellating set of logos became a secondary pattern for various aspects including the bunting.

By using these two elements in various ways a complete branding feel was rolled out providing a constant effective identity for this prestigious event.

To find out more about LEL, head over the the London Edinburgh London site.

Event photo images used with permission by Lyope Photography