As you no doubt have noticed things look different around here. When I formed Kirk Frameworks in 2003 I needed logos for my work and as I tinkered and worked on them I kept coming back to the same theme of the four circles and a sine wave. With time and money being in limited supply I found myself going back to this design I had from when I was 16 years old and making my own skateboard decks. The four circles skate design was one I used back then and with a bit of tweaking it worked on bikes as well.

As time went by I found myself wanting to change the look and feel of my artwork and wanted it to be simpler, cleaner and more modern. There were countless sketches and ideas that were worked on over a few year period and while I liked some of the ideas I didn’t love any of them. My wife Karin then came up with the idea of a negative space design where the colors and shapes of the logo aren’t the letters themselves but the spaces and shapes surrounding those letters. I instantly liked the direction and that started us working on the best way to use the negative space idea. Karin spent countless hours working on them and was very tolerant of my coming in and asking for changes and in time we got to the point where there was nothing let to remove, and we were done. We then picked colors that we felt worked well with the new logos and the artwork went off to the printer for decals to be made.

The decal printing process always takes longer than one would ever expect and by the time we had new decals we were pushing it to get them onto bikes headed for NAHBS. My painter and partner Joe Bell made it happen and the bikes made it back to me in time to hang kits on them, get them boxed and sent off to the show. The bikes shown here are the first ones to incorporate the new look and they will be the ones in the booth at NAHBS.

With the new artwork on the bikes we needed have new T shirts printed, get a new show banner made and of course change the entire look of the website. Getting the shirts and banner done was pretty simple but the website was another matter. Karin does all our website work and she somehow made time to go through the website from tip to tail and get the new artwork and colors integrated into all of it.

I’m excited about the new look and the paint and color schemes it lends itself to and look forward to seeing the new cool ways JB comes up with to work with it all.

And now a brief word of apology. When I started the company and adapted my old skate logos for bike use I had no idea that anyone out there might have a similar logo. But it’s a small world and a builder named Jim Kish did have artwork that was very similar to mine. His work of course predated mine and had I known of his I would have taken a different direction. But I didn’t and by the time I saw his logos I was too far down the path to change my artwork. Over the years I had a few people walk into my show booth and look confused and wonder where the Kish Ti bikes were and I’ll bet he’s had a similar thing happen on his end. So I want to apologize to Jim Kish for any confusion the artwork has caused and I wish him all the best. I don’t know Mr. Kish but I have respect for his work and if you are in the market for a titanium bike you should check him out. http://www.kishbike.com/

And now for a few words of thanks. The first and biggest thanks goes to Karin Kirk for making this all happen. Her computer skills, her uncompromising ‘it’s not done until it’s right’ attitude, and her dedication made this possible and without her hard work it would just be a rough sketch. I also want to thank Gary Prange of Screen Specialty Shop for the kick ass job he did on not only getting the decals to look just right but also for guiding us along the way. Thank you to Joe Bell for his input on the design and of course the application of it. His paintwork is the world’s best and I’m proud to have him as my painter and friend. Thank you to Ed Cristman, my old high school friend and graphic artist of the highest order, for his input and feedback on the designs. Without your thoughts I would not have had the confidence to move forward. Last but not least a big thank you to all the Kirk customers out there. Thank you for your trust and your business. Without you all I’d just be standing at my bench with nothing to do.

See you at the show.

Dave

This entry was posted on Friday, February 19th, 2010 at 12:41 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.