18 March, 2015

Collaboration with Nacer Bouhanni

We have always been fond of growing along with our athletes; we don’t want to be just a bike provider, but a brand that stands by all its athletes and teams in every aspect of the cycling world. With that in mind, we sit down to listen to Nacer in search of ideas to make both parties feel comfortable.

In Orbea's books, the fighting nature has always appeared as one of the Identity signs. Boxing, along with cycling, is part of the life of Nacer; a passion installed in him by his father since childhood. The road forward was a clear one.

VISUAL IDENTITY

Along with our design studio, Move, we have worked together to design a visual identity. It consists of 2 logos. The first one, showing “NB13,” embraces his initials and the number 13; defying superstition, it's his personal logo, the one to look over, to pamper, to keep off the radar so as to give it an extra feeling of intimacy.

The second one, a boxing fist with the word “fight”, is the logo he will use in 2015 as a graphic resource used in all the high visibility circumstances: it's the logo that will get more visibility and through which he will connect to his public; his character does not go unnoticed and this logo expresses it perfectly.

CUSTOM ORBEA ORCA

Besides performing a “set-up” and an ultra rigid frame for the sprints, we thought it was important to outfit the bicycle with a special “graphic”. When we sent him the first prototype still without paint, he sent us “a whatsapp” saying: “this color! It's perfect. Matte black”.

So, Alex, our graphic designer, combined a matte black with glossy black applying the 2 logos and turning out this beauty as a product.

WEBSITE

We have also helped him restyle his website, making it much more visual.

I remember the first time we met with Nacer. We had done a special follow up with him, especially since we knew he was going to join the Cofidis Team organization in 2015, but not until December 2014 were we able to meet face to face in Lloret del Mar, during the first stage of Team Codifis.

Nacer seems distant. Once you break the ice and the conversation starts to flow, you realize it’s all about introversion, concentration. The one that moves to another plane when he arrives first at the finishing line: “is the adrenaline” he explains.

“Victory is the best way to communicate,” he answers a reporter at the Team introduction in Roubaix when asked about his communication style. “Everybody likes to feel special,” he states through a shy smile slightly revealing his teeth, in response to questions about him working on his personal brand.