Colnago

An icon coming back on track

Born in 1954 in a small Italian village, Colnago carries the heritage of determination, passion and timeless design within its essence.

A brand with great legacy, its success is marked by a long track of World Tour titles and the creation of pioneering products that revolutionized the cycling industry. Led by the creative genius of Ernesto Colnago, each bicycle is a work of Italian craftsmanship, mastery and performance.

But in recent years the brand began losing the level of its legacy. We needed to make a leap in quality and build a contemporary yet timeless brand while keeping its essence and heritage.

The challenge was clear: to raise the brand to the level of its legend. We worked together with Colnago’s team to redefine its values and create a new brand strategy.

We had yet another big challenge: to pave the way to bring Colnago’s excellence to new territories in the future. Creating a unique lifestyle brand that can embrace everything from apparel to cafes, from hotels to a wide range of remarkable experiences. We call this “the Colnago Revolution”.

Redefining the values of success

The brand narrative needed to express Colnago’s differential values: the Italian spirit, the heritage of a cycling legend, the mastery of world champions, and the seduction of artistry designs.

Most of all, it needed to inspire Aceness, the core value of the brand. Its relentless pursuit of nothing but the best is what has led Colnago to design the best bikes in the world, a recognition that it wears with pride.

These elements have been combined into a compelling brand narrative to enhance the exclusive experience that Colnago has always represented and make its legend immortal.

The legacy of the Ace

It was in 1970 that Colnago adopted the symbol that would become its hallmark of excellence and fuel its leadership for decades: the ace of clubs.

Through artisan work in which each element was taken care of to reach the highest quality, we developed the iconic Ace symbol to be more solid and elegant in its form, keeping true to its heritage. We redesigned the symbol, refining its shapes and working on the negative spaces between each of its petals to improve legibility.

The new symbol also sees the introduction of a base, emulating the serif style of the new typeface created exclusively for Colnago.

Designed to fit the bike

The logotype was specially designed to fit every part of the bike. In order to adapt the word mark to the down tube, the typography is set at an inclination of 30 degrees. This was a challenge as the standard inclination of an italic typeface is usually 11 degrees. The result is a more extended, aerodynamic and sportier logo, without losing its essence.

The Colnago symbol was also adapted to the rainbow stripes of the world champion: the heart of a Colnago bike.

The trace of Italian heritage

Born in the cradle of Italian design and passion, its origin was an asset to be enhanced. We introduced hints of Italian culture into the symbol and created two bespoke typefaces specially for Colnago.

The Serif version was inspired by the Bodoni font, the archetype of Italian typography – communicating values such as tradition, heritage and luxury. The Sans is related to the typefaces of Aldo Novarese, another icon of Italian typography, and conveys values such as sport, enthusiasm and victory.

These typefaces express the two levels of the brand: cycling and exclusivity.

The gold of medals

It is only fitting that the brand of champions had the colour of champions, matching their trophies and medals. We specially created Colnago Gold, an exclusive colour unique to the brand, inspired by its many glorious victories.

The sound of racing

Together with Facundo Capece we combined the sound of a bicycle chain, the whistle of the wind, the touch of nature and the pulse of racing in an epic sound design.

The voice of champions

The tone of voice aims to express the personality of the brand, led by each of the brand’s core values. Colnago’s brand voice is confident, audacious, expert and graceful.

Our tagline had to be powerful enough to strengthen Colnago’s story, as well as inspire and engage riders. We explored the word “Ace” as a verb and found it had the most fitting definition: “to win or succeed in a competitive situation”. Our tagline was clear: Ace it. A bold statement inviting cyclists and bike lovers to succeed.

Creating a world around bicycles

Colnago is rightfully known as the most successful bikes in the world. But it’s not just about bikes.

Each application must express the quality, uniqueness and exclusivity of the brand. It can be clean and minimalist, or more complex, with brand-based patterns that add movement and visual richness.

Colnago moves into the world of clothing to express itself in sportswear, shirts and gloves, in corporate stationary, books, and catalogs, in exclusive merchandising, and in logistics vehicles used on tours.

The Ace goes further

Colnago doesn’t settle for average. Its spirit of aceness goes beyond the cycling world and will soon expand to new territories: Colnago’s own coffee brand, Colnago Caffè, and the Colnago’s social foundation, LaFONDAZIONE. Excellence must be conveyed through the entire brand experience.

Made for winning

Colnago is undoubtedly an icon. Its path of glory has led us to where we are now: the revitalization of a cycling legend and helping its legacy reach the world. Thanks to our close collaboration with Eduardo Manso, David Galar, Facundo Capece and Matías Rodriguez Levy, whom we deeply appreciate for their professionalism and dedication, and Colnago’s internal teams, we were able to transform a legendary bicycle brand into a global legacy brand that can, and will, do so much more.