Byrne's BAM Bike Racks

[photos by Dino Perrucci]

The Brooklyn Academy of Music tapped David Byrne to design their new bike racks, which went up just last week. Ex-Talking Heads frontman Byrne is no stranger to bike rack design—see an earlier project of his here—and was inspired by typography this time around:

When designing these bike racks, I wondered how I could make something that was modular, yet variable—a design that wouldn't always look the same and could vary depending on season and placement. I realized that a few very basic shapes—a semi circle, a line, and a V shape—would allow one to make a good percentage of the letters of our alphabet.

With help and advice from Dero Bike Racks, we figured out how these components could be easily and quickly swapped out to spell different words. For example, the letters could spell out the productions at BAM or any random message for that matter.

Cycling advocate Byrne can often be seen in Brooklyn and on two wheels, and he'll be using the bike rack as much as anyone else. "I get to BAM fairly often," says Byrne, "and the existing racks are often full, so it's great that there will now be more."

See also: Keha3 Reimagines Bike Racks in Its Own Image, That of Nature