A.D.B. take inspiration from receipts and retail in their identity for cycling store NEW ØRD3R

German bike manufacturer Bike-Mailorder (BMO) has created a new concept store in Berlin, named NEW ØRD3R, aiming to be a celebration of both cycling and cycling culture. Partnering with Dortmund-based scenographers please don’t touch, Dortmund neighbours AD.LIPS DESIGN BUREAU (A.D.B.) took the challenge to brand both NEW ØRD3R’s identity as well as the interior and exterior of the physical store space.

With an interior designed to be completely flexible through wheeled displays and a minimalist layout, the physical store and the identity are in harmony with one another due to the equally as adaptive and responsive typographic system implemented in A.D.B.’s design. “Because the shop owner (BMO) comes from online sales and opened his first actual store,” A.D.B.’s founder Marius Burgmann tells us, “we wanted to give the branding something which is really related to retail.”

The charm of this inspiration and the brand’s application shows how playful the results can be, contrasting variable typographic layouts with the stark rigidity of their monochromatic aesthetic. “We wanted each topic to stand out,” Burgmann explains in discussing the decision to keep the identity black and white, adding “it had to work with all kinds of different photo material of their various brands and collabs.” With the wordmark designed as it is, it can be comfortably applied across digital and physical outcomes with each looking as striking as the last.

Due to the influence of retail, A.D.B. used the aesthetic of a receipt as their starting point, telling us “we chose Favorit Mono because it reminded us of those typical receipt typefaces, but in a very modern way,” adding, “furthermore it works brilliantly with all the different formats” due to its modular construction. Keeping it in the family, A.D.B. also used Favorit Medium Extended for their headline type choice. “It has the same core (as Favorit Mono) but is very strong and recognisable due to its special ‘R’,” Burgmann explains, resulting in an incredibly striking wordmark, if anything due to the custom characters within it.

‘The crossed ‘O’ and ‘3’ instead of ‘E’ is also related to retail,” Burgmann clarifies, suggesting that both the technical side of cycling and the minutiae of a receipt both are littered with numbers, be it the receipt dates or the frame or wheel sizes of bicycles – “all those within the scene are totally familiar with it,” Burgmann adds.

Across the identity’s application you can find a double circle icon; designed as an “additionally corporate element,” that is customisable to represent different details when required, for example, it becomes more squared when in the context of gravel. “With changing topics the identity will get new symbols,” Burgmann tells us, “and corporate elements which represent every individual concept,” such as hand-drawn symbols and handwritten headlines for the introduction of children’s bikes in the future.

A.D.B.