Cycle Chic Photo Shoot for Velorbis

It's Copenhagen Fashion Week this week and what better reason than to write about bicycles and fashion.

It's no surprise that we like photography and we like bicycles here at Cycle Chic. Often we get to combine the two in a little more detail than normal in the form of photo shoots. Danish bicycle brand Velorbis needed some new imagery for the new catalogue and we said 'oh, yes' when they called. We shot the catalogue over two days here in Copenhagen and had a fabulous time.

Here are some of the photos from the shoot that we fancy. We shot a number of Velorbis bicycles as well as a bunch of their cool, new accessories like gorgeous leather bags for urban living.







And here are some behind the camera photos of Mikael at work. :-)









There were, of course, a number of things we wove into the concept for the photo shoot. If there is any bicycle brand out there that understands how to sell their products positively, it is Velorbis. So right off the bat, we had a whole marketing world in common.

We wished to present cycling and bicycles like they always used to be presented, from the very beginning of bicycle culture in the late 1880's. Elegance, practicality, effortlessness. We were inspired by the many examples of bicycle posters from the late 1800's/early 1900's. Not directly, but merely in the style of the messaging.





We also developed a concept for the photo shoot that is quite rare in bicycle advertising. We found hardly any examples of bicycle ads where the model looked right into the camera, at the viewer. So we integrated this into the shoot, as you can see in a lot of these photos.


Here is a little slideshow from the photo shoot with Velorbis - both behind the camera and the shots we took:


Now we're looking forward to a shoot - stills and a film - for our good friends at MUUSE.COM next month.

Copenhagenize Consulting, who run Cycle Chic, works with consultancy and communications regarding urban cycling but fashion and photo/film jobs are the jam on our bread and butter sandwiches. See the commercial for Biomega bicycles, for example, here.

Copenhagen Cycle Tracks Guide Book

ADDENDUM! 16 SEPTEMBER 2010:
The guide book is now available for purchase online RIGHT HERE, BABY!

A few months ago three friends and I decided that what visitors to Copenhagen needed was a decent guide book. Not one written by a tourist who passed through the city for a week and published in foreign countries, but rather one written by locals. An insider's guide to all the nooks and crannies you don't hear about in Rough Guides, Lonely Planets and brochures from the tourist information office.

We launched Copenhagen Cycle Tracks a week ago and we're well pleased. The book is a collaboration between Cycle Chic and Baisikeli Bike Rental. The latter is a development agency that sends used Danish bikes to workshops in Africa and if you're ever in Copenhagen, this is where you rent your bike. Got it?


The book is written by me, Henrik Smedegaard Mortensen, Kristine Baas and Simon Post. I did the art direction and took most of the photos. Each of us have chipped in with personal recommendations, identifiable with a colour code. Want to see which beach Mikael recommends? Look for the red boxes. Keen to see which bars Kristine fancies for a night out dancing? Look for the purple. And so on.

It is available from Baisikeli, the tourist information office and selected hotels and youth hostels. It costs 35 kroner - cheaper than a pint of beer.

In a way it's a bicycle guide to the city, but then again, not really. The bicycle is the preferred transport form so it's kind of silly to write a bicycle guide. We have a page with cycling tips, but other than that we're expecting people to use the bicycle to get around to the 121 exciting places. When in Rome, as they say.

To celebrate the launch of the book we went for a bike ride with 50 friends last night. I'll blog about it shortly.

If all goes according to plan we'll do it again next year, complete with mobile phone apps and a website.