Ride for Pain event identity
UniSA Body In Mind Research Group
Brief
Pain Adelaide is a collaboration between Adelaide’s three major Universities–UniSA, Flinders University and University of Adelaide–along with Pfizer, WorkCoverSA, The RAH, and SAHMRI. It is a network of scientists, health professionals and consumers who are dedicated to taking on the social burden associated with chronic pain.
Ride for Pain is an event dedicated to increasing public awareness around chronic pain. Did you know that it costs our communities more than cancer and diabetes combined? Neither did we until we were lucky enough to be invited to give the Ride for Pain event a strong new identity.
The event challenges cycling enthusiasts to take on their own pain challenge by choosing a 2, 4 or 6 hour gruelling ride through some of Adelaide’s toughest hill climbs.
Research
Pain is a serious issue, but given Ride for Pain is essentially a social event, we thought it also needed to come across as being ‘not too serious’. The cycling event, defined by organisers as having ‘Adelaide’s toughest hill climbs’, needed to have a distinctive design solution aligned with this definition.
Solution
The proposed logotype for the event is the result of combining various visual elements that were created during our research and idea generation process for the 3 key themes.
The most obvious element is the gear or cog that references cycling. The most important element is the use of various triangles, both in the custom designed typographic letter forms and the background triangle shape. All triangles are an abstract representation of hills and slopes associated with the ride.
The tip of the main triangle shape is coloured black, hinting that the summit of the mountain–aligned with the ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ for pain–are the event’s ultimate goals.
This notion that the triangle is a mountain or road is further emphasised by the poster, which has the addition of hundreds of little pain graphics we call ‘noise’. This visual noise is a representation of the distraction or suffering that pain causes. It is only by focussing on the ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ that we can achieve our personal and social pain objectives.
