Design Ecology! Neo-Green Marketing Strategy

If you're interested in marketing, green issues and design [and can read German] there's a splendid book available called Design Ecology! - Neo-Green Marketing Strategy. Written by Jutta Nachwey and Judith Mair, the book covers the new wave of sustainable and enivironmental marketing here in the new millenium.

The Pitch
"Ecology and sustainability are moving increasingly into the focus of corporate communications. The old visual cliches of the eco-design have been exhausted. Communicating "Corporate Green" is important to many companies. With modern visual language and stylistic diversity, they have changed tactics to fit the modern world.

Design Ecology! presents 70 international brands, from small "self-made" labels to global brands, which exemplify the growing need for sustainability and enivironmental friendliness and the interest in social and ethical issues. All through communication and design strategies and listening to audience needs."

I'm pretty thrilled that Copenhagen Cycle Chic was chosen to be included in the book. The backbone of the blog is the photography, of course, but it has been fun developing a marketing strategy and visual identity. It's a rather unfinished work but a little design recognition warms the heart. And it's always fun to read a review of the design and the blog.

"Director Mikael Colville-Andersen refers to his streetstyle blog as 'Bike Advocacy' The photos, which incidentally are taken on the way to work, kindergarten or the supermarket, focus on the especially chic Copenhagen women on their bicycles.

Over 500,000 citizens cycle each day in the Nordic metropolis and clandestine bicycle capital of the world. Colville-Andersen exploits the wholly unpretentious and yet stylish coolness factor of the bicycle.

It is not a lyrca-clad Lance Armstrong imitation but rather cycling as a 'way of life'. Cozy, trendy and environmentally friendly.

One sees lively ladies in skirts and dresses with waving hair, high heels and together with her boyfriend, a dog in the basket or a child on the back. On an obesity list of 108 countries, Denmark tops the list with the fewest overweight people. Germany is at 61! If you ride to work each day, over a week the calories you have burned is the same as fasting for one day.

The blog has an historical angle, too, like the bicycle's role in the suffragette movement and it links to other witty sites like British Cycle Club 'Tweed', Fahrradsozialismus and there are guest photos of cool bicycle fashion from Berlin, Portland and Amsterdam.

The Cycle Chic concept is mainly communicated through photography and although the photos are often similar, devoted fans are never bored thanks to the diversity of the shots, different angles and the involvement of the urban environment. The main point of the flood of images: Cycling is a cult.

Mikael Colville-Andersen designed the logo [font: Gill Sans] and the entire blog, where he also uses Helvetica Condensed Bold. Since the photos are the primary focus, the logo should be simple and elegant, but as unobtrusive as possible. Nevertheless it is concise enough to be used in different variations on stickers, posters and t-shirts or on a mousepad featuring the Cycle Chic manifesto."

The book Design Ecology! is available on Amazon.de [Germany].

Aerial Cycle Chic and a Telling Quote

A new angle on Cycle Chic. I was atop some buildings last August, shooting some footage for an upcoming film about cycling in Copenhagen for the city's Bicycle Office. I snapped some stills while I was at it.

This stretch was in the process of being renovated, thus the odd scribbles on the asphalt.

Simplicity. Bicycle. Copenhagener. Bicycle Symbol.

I just finished a fantastic novel - The Impressionist, by Hari Kunzru. Nothing to do about bicycles, but part of it takes place in Oxford in the early 1920's. This passage is splendid and as you can see on this blog, it is history repeating itself.

"Then, all of a sudden, something rare and signifigant happens. Like one of those minor celestial bodies whose trajectory requires slide rules and conversion tables to calculate, Johnathan, homeless particle, undergoes a collision. It is an event which changes everything, for ever.

"It begins with a bell, and the sound of a chain in need of oil. Turning the corner outside the Ashmolean Museum is a bicycle, and on the bicycle is a girl. Bridgeman steps out of her way, and for a moment she looks him straight in the eye. Blue eyes. His world turns syrupy and slow-flowing. She is wearing a white summer dress, and over it an academic gown. On her head is a wide-brimmed hat, with yellow silk flowers around the crown.

"As she wobbles towards Cornmarket, he confirms that she is beautiful, and a string section materializes in his forebrain, drenching him in grand and stylized emotion. Beneath the hat her cheeks are flushed with the effort of cycling, and as her feet work the pedals the white cotton of her dress stretches with the line of her thighs, taut and slack, taut and slack."
From Excerpt from 'The Impressionist' by Hari Kunzru.

Except for the academic gown, this scene could take place on any - every - street corner in Copenhagen. 365 days a year.

Shameless Self-Promotion for New Book

There has been talk of a 'blook' [book + blog = blook] based on the Copenhagen Cycle Chic blog and while it is well on the way, it is a larger undertaking than I first anticipated. Choosing a publisher, selecting photos, writing text. All exciting and yet time-consuming.

I was playing around with some self-publishing websites to see what they had to offer and I suddenly decided upon a theme for a photo book. I have many photos of zebra crossings [crosswalks to some] on Flickr and I have now gathered the best of them in a book of 135 photos of zebra crossings from 10 countries.

"Stripey Streetness - Zebra Crossing Moods" is the title, taken from a group on Flickr that I started for the purpose of providing a showcase of the best shots from around the world featuring these stripey zones.

"A splendid photo series about the zebra crossing as an instantly recognisable symbol in the urban landscape. 130 photographs from 10 countries celebrating that striped zone created in order to keep people out of harm's way by providing safe passage across city streets. Painted bridges that guide the bustling masses of pedestrians through a city.

The zebra crossing is not a destination it itself but it is an important tool in getting yourself from A to B. It funnels all types of people together into one space, for a few brief minutes of togetherness. We are strangers but while waiting for the light to change and for those dozen or so steps through the zone we are in a flock.

This photo series shows city life and city people framed within the zebra crossing. People coming and going and waiting. All of them telling us stories with their body language. Wide strides or short steps. Hunched shoulders or head held high. The zebra crossing becomes a stage on which people around the world are brought together."

Most of the photos are taken in Copenhagen so there is ample opportunity to see a splash of cycle chic. The book is available online at Lulu.com. Just in time for Christmas... :-)

Like-minded Individuals

I've made the acquaintence of many like-minded individuals through this blog and now I'm met one close to home. I was contacted by Marie, a fellow Copenhagener, and we met to discuss our passion for Copenhagen bike culture.

She wrote her thesis from the University of Copenhagen last year called "The Modest Democracy of Daily Life - An analysis of the bicycle as a symbol of Danishness".

For those who understand Danish, there is an interview with her on Danish Broadcasting's website. Click on the name Marie Kåstrup to hear it.

The thesis makes for fascinating reading. The short of the long is that we are now collaborating on a book about Danish bike culture and it's all very exciting. Not to mention odd that it hasn't been done before. Working title: 'Cykelkultur' - I don't need to translate that, do I? :-)

But despite the lack of books on the subject, she confirmed what I had long suspected: that Denmark has more songs, literature and poems dedicated to the bicycle than any other country. Not even our happy, singing, poetic Dutch friends to the south can compete.

And indeed, the concept of "cykelpigen" - or "the cycling girl" was well established from early on and it remains an iconic symbol of Danishness even today [this blog, for example]. "A unique front figure for the democratic bike culture", as Marie writes in her thesis. "She is, all at once, a modest, charming and everyday representation of Danishness."

Poets and writers and songwriters have sung the praises of the Copenhagen cycling and cyclists for over 120 years.

In his famous documentary from 1935 simply called 'Danmark', Poul Henningsen filmed cycles in the city, including these 'young cycle ladies' and wrote the final song in the film - "Cykelsang" wherein he mentions 'Sweet shoes on pedals [...] Cycle girls... lovely girls!'. Here's a still from the film of a cyclist in a summer dress pedalling through the landscape:


And here is a hastily made Short visual history of Danish cycling:


More to follow, along with the usual content... don't worry.