SRAM
CHICAGO, IL
SRAM is the world’s second largest manufacturer of bicycle components. Their relentless focus on innovating the category has significantly improved the industry over and over again. In designing their new corporate headquarters in Chicago’s historic Fulton Market District, SRAM wanted to further spur innovative thinking in their bike-obsessed employees.
Forcade partnered with Perkins+Will to create a one-of-a-kind environmental graphics and signage and wayfinding package that reflected the deep-rooted cycling culture of SRAM.
The large floorplate in SRAM’s historic headquarters building posed a challenge to meeting their goal for the new space, which was to better connect their talent to foster innovation. We solved the issue with a first in corporate interior design: creating a 1/8 mile test track that runs around the entire perimeter of the space.
This interior bike lane made it easy for employees to quickly move around the large space using their preferred mode of transportation, fostering collaboration between departments to help spark creativity for their next innovation. The track also served as an immediate way for employees and clients to test new products coming out of the SRAM Lab, providing product inventors with feedback on the fly.
SRAM’s employees live and breathe cycling beyond just their careers. It’s an outdoor lifestyle they’re obsessed with. So our corporate interior design plan brought the outside in. We painted the test track with the same graphics found on Chicago’s bike lanes. Our focus on experiential graphic design details like this brought authenticity, familiarity and vibrancy to the space, providing employees with a deeper connection the culture of SRAM and cycling overall.
We also took advantage of the sheer size of the floorplate by installing large format wall graphics that celebrated a passion for pedaling through life. These environmental graphics featured oversized outdoor photography that inspired employees to bring their passion for what they do outside the office to inside its walls. It was a highly focused and cohesive branding graphics design plan to bring the essence of SRAM to life.
A fanatical culture like SRAM’s called for more than surface-level design elements. Forcade’s vision was to create an immersive experience for employees, making every inch of the office space an inspiration for innovation. While many companies encourage biking to work, we created a culture where biking at work was also part of the experience.
