Kai Nobbe lives and works as a freelance designer in the capital of the Netherlands, Amsterdam where he can also be found riding his fixed gear bike. Riding fixed started six years ago when Kai decided to convert a steel race frame and build it up as a fixed gear commuter, and with over ten years of experience as a freelance designer, Kai was the perfect match to create our new logo. We met with Kai in Amsterdam for a drink and to find out more about his thought process behind the new FGC logo, the design process, and about his passion for fixed gear crits was the perfect match to design our new logo.
Text & Photography: Brian Megens
“When creating a logo, I don’t just draw something that looks good. I try to look at the bigger picture and come up with a concept that represents what the brand stands for and find something that can be used in all sorts of brand communication. A logo is just a small part of the story. ”
“Before putting any line on paper I do a lot of research. I talk with the client to find out who they are an what kind of story they want to tell. Regarding Fixedgearcrit.com I wanted to create something powerful, fast and dynamic. We decided to stick with the colours currently being used, because over time the teal color has become a characteristic of FGC. We did try several other colours, so who knows, maybe it will change one day.”
“With the FGC logo I wanted to symbolize the racing aspect. The curved line between the F and G represents the famous hairpin turn that comes back in many fixed gear criterium circuits. It’s also symbolizes the line of riders, flowing over the course, with all its turns and obstacles in it.”
How Kai gets inspired? “Well inspiration is all around, a conversation I have, objects, or colours I come across” Says Kai while picking up and finishing his beer.
Besides commercial work, Kai likes to create work of his own. A project close to Kai’s heart is a series of drawings. The series consists out of three drawings, all of different type of cyclists, the sprinter, the time-trial specialist, and the winner. “The cool things about these drawings is that they are made with just 1 line.”
Next to being a freelance designer and working for a start-up that creates glasses, Kai is also a fixed gear crit fanatic and last season he competed in the NL Crit Series in the B category. This was his first season of serious racing and for next year he is aiming to step up his game. “Together with some other guys that I got to know through the NL Crit Series we started a new team named ‘Doop Cycling‘. Although we all want to perform, and are all training seriously this winter, we are mainly a group of friends that just really like to ride and compete on our fixed gear bikes.”
