I’m the passionate type. Two things I happen to be passionate about are cycling and art. As an avid cyclist, I must admit that it is rare to have these two passions ever meet in a way that truly excites me. Perhaps this is why I opted to make my first blog entry about a recent campaign by none other than American cycling legend, Lance Armstrong.
2009 was Armstrong’s comeback year after a 4-year hiatus, with the intention of riding primarily to bring attention to his global cancer initiative with the LIVESTRONG cancer research campaign.
However, this entry isn’t about Lance nor his condition. It’s not about his team or even the drama that has followed him all season. This entry is about the bikes he has been riding throughout the season. Lance and TREK have teamed up to create a series of “art bikes” which were designed by some of the world’s leading contemporary artists, such as Kaws, Shepard Fairey and Damien Hirst.
Shepard Fairey for STAGES. Photo Credit: Trek Bicycle Corporation
These bikes are beautiful! Every artist had their own interpretation of what Armstrong and his cause represents. While the bikes stand out afar from the masses of team-colored bikes at races, it’s the minor detailing which really makes the impression. Each bike is emblazoned with typography stating the numbers 1274 (the number of days Lance was in retirement) and 27.5 (the number of people in millions who have succumbed to cancer during his time away). These bikes were ridden at several races during the year and were eventually auctioned off as part of “STAGES”, an art exhibit brought together by Lance, TREK and NIKE.
This actually isn’t the first merger of cycling and art for Lance. In 2005, he commissioned legendary NY graffiti artist, Futura, to design some custom graphics for his 2005 Tour de France time trial bike.
Not only was I excited by the very cool bikes these artists designed, but also surprised by the selection of artists chosen to participate in this project. These, in fact, are artists whose work I happen to follow closely. So it seems that Lance and I have more in common than I would have expected. Now… if I can only get drafted for the Tour…
To learn more about Stages, visit http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/stages/.
Tags: Art, Damien Hirst, design and sports, Kaws, Lance Armstrong, LiveStrong, Shepard Fairey, Sports, Trek, Trek Bicycle Corporation
This is really cool. I’ve noticed a lot of products coming out with lines that encourage artists to create on media that they normally wouldn’t even think of doing. Swatch did it recently with their CreArt campaign, http://www.swatch.com/zz_en/artistcollection/artist.artist-billy.html...
The difference here though, with Lance, TREK and Nike is not only are artists designing something new, but there’s a cause involved also. These kinds of collaborations are what industries need to start taking advantage of… it’s the only way to bring us out of our failing economy and be socially responsible at the same time!
QUALITY I really like this, it reminds me of a graffiti artist I saw at http://www.hire-a-graffiti-artist.co.uk their is a few more good graffiti artists on the site.
Wow, I didn’t hear about this topic till now. Thanx!!
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