By building two brands into the typography upfront, creative director Alex Andlaw explains, the issue never arose in the first place.
It’s a dilemma every designer who’s ever worked on a sponsored event will recognise. Two logos arrive. One is the logo for the actual event. The other is the sponsor’s logo. And you know, deep down in your soul, that whatever clever and effective designs you create, at least one of them will ask: “Can you make our logo a bit bigger?”
That’s pretty much the scenario a London creative agency potentially faced when British Cycling approached them to work on their National Series and National Championships.
“And because Lloyds is the headline partner,” says creative director Alex Andlaw. “We also needed to give Lloyds and British Cycling equal weight without it becoming a clunky sponsor lock-up.”
Their eventual solution is interesting, because they didn’t directly try to solve the problem in the logo lock-up at all. They simply solved it one level down, in the typography, where nobody usually thinks to look.
Nailing the concept
Alex sets the scene. “These are the big domestic events,” he explains. “The races where the best riders in the country turn up, across road, track, BMX, mountain bike, the lot, and go for it. It is where younger riders get a chance to make their name alongside proper established talent. So, it needed to feel important. It needed to feel like the pinnacle.”
The challenge was making that work across everything: different disciplines, different venues, signage, social, kit, event graphics. It all had to feel like one joined-up family.
“The whole thing started with one thought: ‘This is where legends are made’,” Alex continues. “That became the story behind it all. These races are not just another fixture in the calendar. They are the proving ground. The place where riders push themselves, make split-second decisions and find out what they are made of. One moment can change a race, and one race can change a career.”
That gave them the vibe: it needed to be fun and full of energy, but still have that sense of ambition and prestige. “We looked at the visual world of cycling more widely, the speed, attitude and confidence you see across different bike categories, then built something that could feel exciting and relevant wherever it showed up.”
Crafting the typography
And that brings us to the typography. “We started with the Anton typeface, which is already part of the British Cycling brand,” says Alex. “But we didn’t just use it straight from the box. We crafted and adjusted selected letters to make it feel more distinctive and ownable.”
Crucially, the new shapes took influence from both Vic, the British Cycling symbol, and the curves and movement of the Lloyds horse. “So even in the typography, you have got this subtle connection between the two brands,” points out Alex. “It makes it feel more athletic, more energetic and much more like it belongs to these events.”
For the National Championships, the palette leans into the familiar red, white and blue of the champion’s jersey. It’s an immediate nod to championship pride, but used in a fresher, more contemporary way: bold, bright and unapologetically competitive.
It’s a simple solution to the double lock-up problem that’s kind of genius if you think about it. The letters carry the partnership in their DNA rather than announcing it with two badges stuck next to each other. In that light, no one’s going to be worried about “which logo is bigger”, because they both form part of one holistic design language.
Separate yet distinct
On these foundations, Form built two related but distinct identities for the two very different events. The National Series, which runs across the season, got a brighter, punchier feel built for constant social output and changing venues. The National Championships, the one-off crowning moment at the end of it, leans harder into red, white and blue, borrowing directly from the champion’s jersey.
“It’s an immediate nod to championship pride, but used in a fresher, more contemporary way: bold, bright and unapologetically competitive,” says Andlaw. Splitting the two apart, rather than forcing one identity to cover both moments, avoids a common danger in sports branding: an event calendar where the season and its finale feel exactly the same.
Form also created a flexible graphic device using Vic. “It can be used as a solid shape or as an outline, depending on what the application needs,” says Alex. “Sometimes it sits in the background and adds a bit of texture; sometimes it becomes the hero. That flexibility was really important because the system has to work across so many events without becoming repetitive.
Ultimately then, Form has created two distinct but connected identities for the National Series and National Championships. As Alex puts it: “Both give British Cycling and Lloyds a strong, balanced presence, bring in a real sense of pride and ambition, and work just as well on a start-line banner as they do on someone’s phone.
“It’s built to give these events the stature they deserve,” he concludes. “Because this is where talent meets opportunity. This is where Britain’s best riders make their mark. And this is where legends are made.”
