Justin Kirkwood

2009 - Concept, Art Direction & Design

WTB had long been known as the market leader for mountain bike saddles in North America. But we also had a line of excellent tires, packed with technology. Our goal with these ads was to educate consumers on how much thought and design went into each tire in our line.

WTB Brand Ads, 2008

The purpose behind this 2008 ad campaign was to communicate with WTB customers about company culture. At a time when many small bike companies were being purchased by large corporate brands, WTB wanted to assure customers that it remained a local, homegrown company staffed by people who are passionate about the products they sell. I chose to design these ads around images of actual WTB employees, and I included tag lines that demonstrate the integral role that mountain biking plays in the daily lives of people working at this company. 

WTB 30th Anniversary Ads, 2012

This ad campaign ran throughout 2012 and was intended to educate a new generation of consumers about WTB’s longevity and resulting expertise in the development and production of mountain bike components. In developing a concept for this ad campaign, I chose to highlight the fact that WTB’s remains located in the heart of Northern California near the birthplace of mountain biking, and that current WTB employees carry the same passion for cycling that company founders possessed in 1982. In order to achieve this, I featured photographs of WTB employees mountain biking on some of their favorite local trails. 

Gyft Promotional Apparel, 2015

These promotional apparel projects were designed to make Gyft more visible at public events like our company outing to AT&T park – or more prominently, at our title sponsorship night at Avaya stadium where hundreds of Gyft employees, friends and family cheered on the San Jose Earthquakes wearing these themed shirts.

30th Anniversary Logo, 2012

This logo was used in all 2012 marketing collateral as a way to celebrate WTB’s 30th anniversary. It features an illustration of Mount Tamalpais, the Northern California mountain credited with being the birthplace of mountain biking and located just several miles from where WTB was founded. 

VOLT, 2010

In 2010, WTB added a new bicycle saddle to its product line for the first time in several years. I was tasked with developing branding for this saddle which included naming the product, creating a logo and developing the product markings. 

WTB Digital Catalog, 2015

This digital distributor catalog is meant to not only give information about the 2015 WTB product line, but also convey to distributors the company’s culture and brand identity. It features beautiful photography that emphasizes the company’s connection to mountain biking.

WTB Product Videos, 2012

This series of videos was produced to educate consumers about WTB’s newest products. The videos feature mountain bike legend and WTB employee Mark Weir, and were filmed at WTB’s local product development facility. 

Dirt to Work, 2010

Annually, WTB participates in promoting national Bike to Work day. In 2010, my team was tasked with creating a low-cost social media marketing campaign that would raise awareness of both national Bike to Work day and WTB’s involvement in promoting cycling as an alternative form of transportation. Because WTB is a mountain bike company, we called this campaign “Dirt to Work.” We produced a promotional video, for which I provided concept development, direction, video editing, video titles and audio production. This video was featured on all of WTB’s social media platforms, and we tied it to a photo contest for our fans and customers.

Gyft White Label SDK, 2016

The while label SDK was developed to streamline one of Gyft’s main revenue streams – allowing B2B partners to easily integrate gift card sales into their web and mobile products. The designs for this project are clean and simple to avoid conflict with our customer’s own apps. Additionally each component is separated to allow easy configuration while maintaining a unified look and feel.

TCS Website, 2010

In 2010 WTB launched an important new technology referred to as TCS, and I was asked to develop a microsite specifically dedicated to educating WTB customers about TCS technology.