Svajerløb 2010

In 2009, my wife and I spent our honeymoon touring the capital cities of Scandinavia. During our stay in Copenhagen, I fell in love with the widespread use of cargo bicycles. Upon returning home, I was inspired to learn more about these beautifully utilitarian machines. This quickly led me to the online presence of Mikael Colville-Andersen — the de facto ambassador of Copenhagen’s cycling scene — and the creator of both Copenhagenize and Cycle Chic.

One day, while reading Mikael’s blog, I learned of the 2010 Svajerløb cargo bike races. He had a few concepts of posters (for the event) he posted for reader feedback. I found one of the designs particularly strong, but had some suggestions which I communicated to him. Soon thereafter, we talked and I was designing three posters based on Mikael’s original concept.

There are several popular types of cargo bikes in Copenhagen…and each style has its own subculture of devotees…and its own “class” in the Svajerløb races. So, we created two designs based on different frame styles. Of the latter design (below), Danish- and English-language variants were created.