Surprise Me 2021-2022 Process.

Surprise Me 2021-2022

“The Painters Proof"

Head Painter Patrick and Creative Director Richard, worked out this design in real time over the course of a full week. With many different iterations refined in the computer beforehand. Going in we knew this could push our limits, but it became apparent minute one, when nearly every pattern planned was so fine the plotter couldn't cut them ( the machine that cuts graphics for paint masking). Revision upon revision, test after test, in real time lead us to this final scheme.

Final design before live on the spot changes during the process.

As Surprise Me is only available on custom bikes, things change pretty significantly in terms of graphic lay out due to bike sizes. This paint job in particular was like having a finished image, but then needing to cut the lines of an entire jig saw puzzle, free hand, into the image to make it work. Leaning on Richard’s background in graphic design the bike has a heavy grid structure which works to frame everything out.

Laying out the main graphic and planning for the front derailleur hanger.

The goal here was to blend the printing idea into a more graphic icons, breaking away from what these marks truly mean, instead making it visually appealing, and keeping things exciting with less repeating elements. Something that will keep you noticing new details for weeks or months of riding.

One of the challenges with this scheme is the paint process isn’t a CMYK or Pantone system. It’s a series of toners and formulations to create each specific color. There is no true Cyan in our paint system. This forced us to think a bit outside of the box, most blues are on the more opaque end of the paint spectrum. Knowing this, we leaned into colors that would give us those awesome CMYK style blends when overlapped. With this first bike we did a full House of Kolor neon approach, which we affectionately call “The Painters Proof”.

3 overlapping neons to create 7 total colors.

As this is Surprise Me we snuck in some extra fun details into this scheme. The text on the launch bike was left Lorem Ipsum (filler text used by designers to hold space and not influence design) so that eh customer this year will always get a portion of a surprise, even if they choose to go Surprise Me after it has released, the text and color can still be a surprise to the individual. The final touch was the custom Enve decals.