Citrix Cycle

In 2018, Raleigh was planning on implementing an ambitious new bike-share program. Citrix became the primary sponsor of this city-wide program, and thus were able to name the bike and had the opportunity to design their appearance.

Citrix wanted these bikes be reflective of Raleigh culture, not Citrix culture. To accomplish this, they decided to have internal employees in the Raleigh office submit design ideas for the bikes. Myself and several other Raleigh designers created our own visual ideas for the bikes. These were made into presentations and mockups for Citrix executives to review.

I had the honor of having my design be selected as the face of Citrix Cycle throughout Raleigh.

This project was a huge undertaking that involved input from high-level executives within Citrix, the Department of Transportation, as well as vendors for the bikes themselves who were based in Quebec. The end result was dozens of bike stations throughout Raleigh, hundreds of bikes, unique signage for different stations, bike docks, membership cards, key fobs, truck wraps, as well as an app and website to top it off.

The Design Strategy

Quite a bit of thought went behind my design. There were a few key points I kept in mind throughout the process:

1. Reflect the city of Raleigh.
   While the triangle area is known for our universities, I wanted to keep the design simple and non-divisive. (We take college teams very seriously around here) So I used that Raleigh is known as the City of Oaks for my major inspiration - creating acorns, oak leaves, and squirrels as the main elements. For some extra flair I added the state bird and flower in.

2. Use Citrix brand elements without making the project look like a corporate asset.
   The primary red color is a secondary Citrix brand color, and the typography used the proprietary typeface, Citrix Sans. Past that, I was able to use my own imagination.

3. The bikes needed to stand out around the city.
   I wanted them to be bold and attract the eye without being an eyesore. I thought the bold red was an excellent choice for this, with a bit of contrast from the green. It’s warm and inviting, but definitely also stands out against the grey concrete of the city’s sidewalks.

4. These bikes would be frequently viewed from a long distance.
   To be legible from afar, the design needed to be large and simple. This was the idea behind the thick black outlines and very basic shapes used throughout.

5. The design needed to be adaptable.
   Considering the large variety of assets across print and digital, it needed to be a very flexible design. I rather enjoyed the sort of drag-and-drop style of it, and it certainly made my and other vendors’ jobs a lot easier over the months.