Do you want to listen to these guys (and gal)?

Wait, don’t answer too fast. If you are interested in the design of bicycles, you probably really do want to hear what they have to say. If you live anywhere near Kohler, Wisconsin, you can get the chance at the upcoming IDSA Midwest regional conference (register here). On Friday, April 20th, the Trek Bicycles industrial design team (pictured here) will be conducting a hands-on workshop that explores the development of Category Brand Form Language. Sounds like a great event. Here is the semi-official word on the workshop from Trek:

Speaker: Trek Bicycles ID team

Workshop: Form From Scratch, an approach to developing fresh baked category language.

When: April 20th, 2007 time is tbd but will either start at 2pm or 3pm.

Bio and explanation:
Trek ID, led by Steve Baumann, designs products and experiences forTrek, Gary Fisher, LeMond, Klein, Trek-EU, Diamant, Villiger and Bontrager bicycle brands. These brands span multiple uses, lifestyle categories and thousands of products for mass and niche markets worldwide. Trek ID shapes the future from tricycles to Tour winners, kid trailers to single speeds and everything in between.

Within the last five years the Trek ID team has grown from a staff of 2to 12 designers. Team members execute a wide range of design methodsand processes that have helped propel Trek Bicycle Corporation to 7 Tourde France wins, National & International Mountain Bike titles, Olympic Medals and to the top of the bicycle industry worldwide.

The team is relentless in their quest to create product experiences thatare unique to the individual brands and fit the vibe and expectation of the category end user. Brand and Category Form Language sessions empower designers to create a common, yet distinct and authentic voice.

Please join Trek’s ID team for a lively, hands-on workshop that explores the development of Category Brand Form Language. This will be a fun one!

On the subject of Trek design, check out this video clip of designer Hans Eckholm talking about the Lime on the NBC affiliate in Chicago. Very cool; it is great to see the attention this bike is receiving from the mainstream press. Congrats guys.

Posted

April 10, 2007

James

Tags:

design, IDSA, trek

Comments

One response to “Do you want to listen to these guys (and gal)?”

Champs

April 10, 2007

This might be considered heresy, but I maintain that Trek’s Soho and Portland models are much more interesting. Lime goes after the casual cycling segment which may or may not materialize, but the former aim at another important, and increasingly profitable segment: the bicycle commuter. Their execution with Portland and Soho isn’t perfect, since QBP managed to take the best aspects of both to make the Salsa Casseroll, which is just as much at home with derailleurs, gearhubs, or SS/fixed (albeit without that great top tube protector).

Also in the same timeframe as Trek’s ID department growth has been a skew toward the TIME side of garish graphics… not that it can diminish the love I’ve got for my 5200.

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