Brewing Bike Billboards (and Bags)

There’s little dispute (from sensible minds, anyway) about the importance of signage and environmental graphics. However, when design and content aren’t given sufficient priority, subpar signage can translate to visual clutter than fails to make an impression. And, the scrap material after a sign has been removed must also be addressed.

New Belgium Brewing Co. (Ft. Collins, CO), which offers an array of handcrafted beers and ales for sale throughout 26 Western, Midwestern and Southeastern states, teamed with Cultivator, a Denver-based ad agency, the Mile High City’s Lamar Outdoor Advertising office, Great Big Color (also of Denver) and Ecologic Designs (Boulder, CO) to produce billboards that promotes New Belgium’s pro-bicycle philosophy while creating an ingenious second life for the material.

The project began when Dan Starzy, a Lamar rep, approached Cultivator to see if any of its clients would like to take pro-bono space on unused Lamar boards. Steve Moore, a Cultivator account manager, promptly thought of New Belgium. Cultivator developed the brewer’s print-ad campaign and logo design.

Initially, New Belgium’s management was reluctant, but they realized an opportunity. The company ordered five Denver-area billboards that encouraged avid cyclists and ecologically minded individuals to visit its website and sign the Team Wonderbike pledge to bike more and drive less. Cultivator’s create team developed the content using Adobe’s InDesign.

“Billboards sometimes create visual clutter, and the material usually goes to waste after a display goes down,” Bryan Simpson, New Belgium’s marketing director, said. “But, our company was inspired by our owner’s [Jeff Lebesch] bike ride through Belgium, so the bike remains an iconic part of our company culture. Most of our employees are avid cyclists, and we want to promote the bike as a healthy and sustainable mode of transportation. So, the campaign seemed like a good fit.”

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Great Big Color printed the billboards, which totaled 2,287 sq. ft., using 13-oz. PVC media, on its NUR Expedio Revolution UV-ink printer. In keeping with New Belgium’s wishes for a “greener” process, Great Big Color’s Betsy Lyons said the company chose UV inks because of their VOC-free printing process.

New Belgium enlisted Ecologic Displays to create “second life” products once the billboards were removed last month. Robert Bogatin, Ecologic’s president, said his company converted the used media into 300 bike-messenger bags (appropriate, given the billboards’ message), which were offered for sale to the approximately 16,000 cyclists the world over who’d taken the Team Wonderbike pledge. To decorate the bags, Ecologic screenprinted the Team Wonderbike logo onto them.