Did I mention I like bikes? Today’s logo is for the Race Across America, or RAAM. Ever since I found out about RAAM I have been a fan of it. I know several people who have competed (and won!) this crazy race, but I will never ever ever do it. Ever. We are all a little broken inside, but I am not broken in a way that makes me want to ride by bike for 3000 miles in one week.
Anywho, I’ve always loved the event, but I never loved the logo.
It’s not awful. I like the red-black-blue stripes and I like the typography. It looks like they used Emigré Base for the “RAAM.” I don’t like the cyclists though, and the whole lock-up could be re-worked. But with only an hour I decided not to mess with all of that, and try something different.
My 1-hour idea was to try to show the route visually in the logo. I think that helps answer part of the question of what the race is. Here is the route map:
I split the country with a fat route line, and did the whole thing out of straight lines. It turns out they didn’t use Emigré Base for the “RAAM” but I did for my version.
I thought this was a good idea, but it didn’t play out as well as I had hoped. It’s ok, but not strong enough to stand on its own. One of the problems with these one hour logos, is I often run out of time with 10 ideas still in my head. If this were a real project this would have been one concept out of many, but for now, I am out of time.