Designwerk rebrands FIM Superbike World Championship

The consultancy was appointed to the project by sports marketing company and SBK series promoter Infront Sports & Media about a year and a half ago following a creative pitch.

The project was initially to redesign the logo, though following workshops and research, it was decided to create an entirely new visual identity.

Designwerk has created a new logo and identity to be shown across collateral including racing circuit toolkits, coffee table marketing books, the winners’ podium, hospitality areas, sponsor integration programmes, and venue dressing. It will also be shown on the on-air broadcast design toolkit, with titles, stings and live event graphics systems, as well as the website which is also designed by Designwerk.

Cristian Cook, Designwerk creative director, says, ‘The 25th anniversary was a really good platform to launch the new branding with. It was about reinvigorating the brand.’ He adds, ‘It’s been literally 25 years since a rebrand.’

The branding uses a red and black colour palette, with colour variations for the different race types, and a chevron device as the core symbol to reflect the ‘explosive nature of motorsports’.

To create the identity, Designwerk initially organised creative workshops before developing the brand architecture systems and identity families, which use multiple sub-brand logo devices. The consultancy also created brand guidelines for the identity’s application across different types of media.

Cook says, ‘In the workshops we talked a lot about passion – we wanted to inject a life and soul into the brand to make it become a lot more premium and  create an instantly identifiable look.’

The new identity will debut at the initial 2012 SBK round of the year, which takes place in Australia at the Phillips Island circuit on 28 February.