North Vancouver Charity Event Poster Design & More - Brainiacs

The Brainiacs cycling team is a North Vancouver institution that many locals will be well aware of, especially if they are adjacent to the cycling community like me! They are one of the longest participating teams in what was formerly known as the Ride to Conquer Cancer (now Tour de Cure), a charity fundraising cycling event held in BC and Washington state for the last two decades. The Brainiacs were founded by four brain cancer survivors in 2009 and have fielded a team in the event every year since, growing to a powerhouse that has now raised 1.7 million dollars for cancer research through their fundraising efforts.

The Brainiacs reached out to me to bring my design talents to a small but meaningful project this spring- the promotional materials for the Black Kettle 500- one of the most important fundraising and recruitment events leading up to the ride later this summer. Held at Black Kettle Brewing in North Vancouver, I needed to create an iconic design that combined the party atmosphere of the event, the joy of cycling, and the moral good that drives the Brainiacs mission. The deliverables for this short project included social media posts, a large scale event poster design, and event flyers. I chose to base all the pieces off of one unified piece of imagery in order to tie each piece of promotion to the same event. The Brainiacs also dictated the copy, and required a colour palette that would at minimum not clash with their pre existing jerseys.

The breakthrough moment in the ideation of this project was conceptualizing the ordinary riders on the Brainiacs as superheroes, and trying out layouts with comic book style imagery. The outcome was a punchy and vibrant image of a upraised and cycling-gloved hand holding a pint of Tour de Cure beer. The effect was imagery that promised a fun event for a good cause- almost as if each pint raised in celebration was a direct contribution to cancer research- not so far from the truth! A block shading and outlining illustrative style, non true to life colours, and a grain/noise texture were used in order to bring a comic book aesthetic to the image. The typeface selection and modification was bold but simplistic, if not minimalist; the main typeface was selected to match the ‘Brainiacs’ wordmark from their cycling jerseys.

This project was completed pro bono, my own small contribution to the Brainiacs mission. I will also be attending the Black Kettle 500 event itself- so to any North Vancouver locals: I hope to see you there!