Generic Bicycle, 2009

In the Summer of 2009 my beloved commuter bicycle – pieced together in 1990 from a mid ’80s Italian racing frame and a mish mash of spare parts – was looking very ragged.  Most of the paint was worn off and the steel was starting to rust.  My idea was to extend my artwork into my practical life by coneptualizing my transportation.

There is a strong trend these days of “brandless” bicycles with a simple, single-color paint job and no text.  In order to push the idea further, and in keeping with the concepts of the Compare to… project, I chose to add the word “bicycle” where the brand is usually displayed.  As an anti-logo, I added a “B” to either side of the seat tube and to the head tube.

The bicycle is powder coated steel with powder coated lettering created with a vinyl stencil.  The lettering is raised but is baked into the finish of the frame.

The powder coating work was done by Yuval “UV” Awazu of UV Metal Arts and Powder Coating in the Bridgeport neighborhood of Chicago.

Close-up view of the downtube lettering.

Close-up view of the seat tube graphic.