Laura Quick - Award winning artist, illustrator and writer

I was initially approached to read the copy for a book being Produced by Rapha called ‘Getting Started In Road Cycling’. Having followed my instagram, the writer of the book approached me because they wanted to create something which felt humorous and lighter touch.

The problem, they explained, was that Rapha was attracting a very slick serious male consumer, but they needed to bring in new consumer groups of varying experience age and gender, and shed this reputation of being super serious macho, all clad in black- lycra- dudes.

I created the artwork (in the form of 60 illustrations) to encourage new cyclists to consume Rapha as an approachable and supportive brand. The book worked well, and I was then commissioned to do a series of 12 animated shorts to align with the book. I suggested they post me a good load of kit (freebies), including shoes clips, and everything I could need, so that I myself could Get Started (I am also one of the new consumer groups) I then cycled 18 miles every day, learned to clip in, and recorded, filmed and wrote about my experiences. Off the back of these experiences, I did the 12 animations, including clipping in (I fell off a LOT) being overtaken by a wasp, getting lost and enjoying it, and escaping the kids, the laundry and other general domestic chaos, solving problems in my head by going on a ride, making new friends in a cycle group and more. These won me a spot in the Creative Review Awards annual 2019 for the animation category. In all, the stop-frame animations comprised of 10,000 drawings.