Something looks different around here

We are excited to share a new logo with you! Thanks to generous pro-bono consulting from the Taproot Foundation, we’ve spent the past year researching and developing a visual identity that’s better aligned with WABA’s work. WABA is committed to being friendly, to being inclusive, to being diverse and to ensuring that everyone’s experience on a bike is a happy one. Whether you are just learning to ride, taking kids to school, commuting everyday, training for a race, or exploring the trail network on sunny weekends, you are welcome at WABA. We believe the work we do reflects these values, but we’re not sure our old logo does anymore.

Here are some of the design considerations we’ve been trying to balance:

Recognizable types of people and bicycles: One of things that we celebrate in this organization is that lots of different kinds of people ride lots of different kinds of pedal powered devices for lots of different reasons. We want to make sure we’re not sending a message that we only work on behalf of a certain type of bicyclist. In the constrained space of a logo, that means that specificity is very hard to separate from exclusion. As a result, we decided to focus on more abstract shapes that evoke people and bicycles rather than rely on explicit representations. Gravitas and approachability: WABA provides a wide variety of services and programming to a number of different audiences. One of the core tensions in this design process has been creating an identity that is compatible with both the gravity of our policy work and the joy of our learn to ride classes and street corner outreach programs.   Geography: WABA is a geographically bounded organization, but the entirety of region we represent doesn’t have a easy visual signifier. We are sensitive to being perceived as too District-centric, and also sensitive to the frustration that many regional residents feel at having our home conflated with the federal government. In the end, we decided that since our audience already lives here, and since the name of the organization includes our geographic focus, we didn’t need to prioritize location in the logo.

So, without further ado: (Drumroll)

Here in the office, there’s a common typo that we can’t help but take personally. We’re the Washington Area Bicyclist Association, not Bicycle Association. It speaks to the core of WABA’s identity. We’re an organization of people, not machines. So that’s why we’re thrilled to have a logo that contains a community of people, hands raised, united by the desire to move bicycling forward. We hope you like it as much as we do. Now, the important question:

When can I get a t-shirt?

So glad you asked! Stay tuned for our Fall 2017 Membership Drive, starting 10/16.