Wheel Women

Client: British Cycling

What stands between woman and her bike? The reality is there isn’t one nice neat problem to be solved. And the barriers may seem like molehills, but helmet hair can be a mountainous issue.

Whether it’s a dreaded commute or fit-bitting to within an inch of your life, cycling can feel like another grown-up obligation, sucked dry of joy. But for most of us, it used to be a very different story. Hopping on your bike as a kid was pure freedom. A joy ride, not a guilt trip. Cycling came without strings, so could we try and cut some of them back?

Behind this insight was a world of nostalgia. Reminders of a time less grown up, where stickers were cherished, and smash hits was your bible. To recapture these feelings, and help women re-associate cycling with fun and freedom, we wanted to create a brand that knowingly (with tongue firmly in cheek) nodded to these references. A brand that gave women permission to love their bike again.

The Wheel-Women ‘W’ symbol is also a real-life signal.

A gesture to flash in solidarity whenever you see another woman on a bike. A sign of support, security, and a bloody-good spurring on. It’s a secret, subtle act of rebellion, for the women of the bike lanes.

Wheel Women was created as a pilot scheme to encourage women to get back on their bikes. The project planted positive hints, tips and rewards through tactical texts and emails, nudging the women of Walthamstow in the right direction (AKA towards their shed). 

D&AD New Blood – Take On the Future

Client: D&AD

D&AD is to design and advertising what BAFTA is to film, celebrating the best in the business, and building a bridge for new blood into that biz. The New Blood programme is dedicated to just that, finding and feeding the industry stars of tomorrow. 

If you were to predict the New Blood process, how would the future read? Fooling about with ideas, playing magician, finding the strength to see it over the deadline, judgement etc. Working on the 2019 Awards, Festival & Academy campaign, this question sparked a world of tarot cards and fortune tellers.

But for the next wave of creative talent, the future shouldn’t be about fate or fortune. It’s about taking it on, and taking charge of your next chapter. 

So, the story took a subversive twist, playing with the iconography and language of tarot to flip the passive ‘I wish’ mindset to an active mantra of ‘I will’. In other words, fuck luck. 

Cards of Courage

Client: D&AD

The gap between your education formally ending and career beginning is big – for most, a baptism of fire that can make or break you. As the industry body bridging this chasm, D&AD has a unique opportunity to offer graduating talent guidance on how to navigate the trials ahead, and the perfect moment to share it.

New Blood Festival is an amazing showdown connecting fresh creatives with the industry and launching careers. A 3-day event that pops up once a year, then powers down until the next intake.

So, to make its impact last, this time we wanted to leave people with a real-life thing you could hold, stick up on your wall, pass on and come back to whenever you needed pepping. Advice for the anxieties that come with jumping off the cliff called ‘graduation’.