Developing Mountain Biking in Scotland

The existing logo had one thing worth keeping: the arrow. It was already doing something directional and purposeful. The work was to build an identity around it that could scale, from trail signage and print to motion graphics and digital, without losing coherence.

Production Type’s Enduro typeface anchored the typographic system. The name earns its place here - Enduro is a discipline that rewards endurance and consistency over spectacle, which is exactly what DMBinS does for Scottish mountain biking. The usage was subsequently featured by Production Type on Fonts In Use, an independent typography archive.

One of the more distinctive pieces of the project was a series of contour graphics produced for DMBinS’s key riding destinations across Scotland: Tweed Valley, Fort William and Lochaber, Dumfries and Galloway, Perthshire, the Cairngorms, North Highlands, Aberdeenshire, Loch Lomond and the Trossachs, and Inverness and Loch Ness. Each graphic translates terrain into a visual mark that works as both a locator and a design element. Place made legible.

The website was built in partnership with Yep Digital, who handled development. The brief was to create a hub for Scotland’s mountain biking community, clear enough for newcomers and substantive enough for those already embedded in the sport. An interactive map lets users find ride guides by location. Colour and iconography identify DMBinS’s key programme pillars. Badges represent each charitable cause.

The motion work extended the identity into film, including Aberdeenshire’s Granite Gold with Scotty Laughland, produced for DMBinS’s campaign series. The brand needed to hold up on screen as well as it did on a trail sign or a jersey, and it did.