Knolly Bikes*

Project

Noel Buckley (Knolly) has designed and manufactured high end mountain bike frames since 2002. His frames ellicit a unique emotional paradox - the appreciation of superb workmanship, and the desire to get on the bike and punish it within an inch of it's life.

Discovery and Focus

The discovery phase revealed the Knolly Bike brand peers - Knolly bikes fell somewhere inbetween the enginnered fun and styling of the MINI and Audi.

With this in mind we focused on:

• Designing an identity that is everything a Knolly bike is
• Design a symbol that is engineered excellence
• Find a niche in the saturated Mountain Bike scene

Despite the trend towards complicated graphics and styling, we wanted to remain a leader not in trends, but in "superlative design" - a phrase often used to describe the experience of riding a Knolly Bike.

Creating the Experience.

As part of the creative brief we coined the company mantra ..." Reliable, Predictable, Performance". This dictated a simple cleanline approach. Let the bike do the talking.

Haruki Noguchi's mouth watering product shots complimented his industry leading action shots.

A new website showcased the fulfilment of Noel's dream and afforded him the luxury of having a virtual Sales kit available 24 hours a day.

His business cards featured more of Harooki's action shots. The collector set of cards is in high demand and highlights the biking community, the extreme nature of the sport and the awe inspiring locations that you can ride.

The brand was carried into Interbike 2006 for the official launch of the Knolly Bikes brand. Dealer kits aand postcards were created as sales tools. He ran out of those fast.

Results

Knolly bikes have experienced fantastic growth since 2006. The V-Tach frame which won the prestigous MTBR Choice Award in the Full Suspension FreeRide bike in 2006, 2007 and 2009. The flagship model has now been joined by 2 new frames - the Delirium T and the Endorphin.

These awards don't go unnoticed as the website traffic has seen sigificant growth. It currently recieves over 5000 unique visitors a month yeilding over 45,000 page views within the site.

The bottom line, Noel and his team have a new problem - how to keep up with the surge in demand.