ELASTIC INTERFACE® for LOST IN PREALPS. THE BICYCLE IS THE MESSAGE PROJECT
[ssbp]Elastic Interface® is supporting the Lost In Prealps association and event again in 2023 to promote environmentally-friendly sustainable mobility.
By supporting Lost In Prealps, Elastic Interface® continues its work to safeguard and restore the environment and publicises “Bicycle is the Message”, a project that promotes biking riding as a way to share positive messages for the environment and society.
We caught up with Manuel Gatto (founder of Lost In Prealps event), and Marco Guberti (collaborator and designer), so they could tell us about “Bicycle is the message” project made by Piètra, their social and environmental communication hub.
How did the “Bicycle is the Message” concept start? And why?
We got the idea to start a poster project a while back during some lectures about cycling that analysed the bike’s capacity for kickstarting mini revolutions. What began as a plaything for the upper classes over time became horsepower for ordinary people, then filtered its way through the social strata to modern day and has now become the means of transport for today’s cycle activists. This sparked the idea for the “Bicycle is the Message” concept.
What does the project aim to do?
“Bicycle is the Message” aims to give a voice to everyone who wants to get across a positive message by
using bikes. It strives to raise awareness about respecting the environment instead of using it as an openair
dump, and promote the well-informed, conscious use of environmental resources and means of transport.
What is the meaning behind the creative pieces developed for Elastic Interface®?
We have used a technique that mixes décollage with applied graphics in the project developed for Elastic Interface®. The three creative pieces tie in with issues linked to soil and air pollution. Rubbish emerges from vibrant life-sustaining, verdant land and from brightly coloured skies, and wrecks the landscape from the inside out.
We want these collage posters and the poster’s message to set an unambiguous visual message, like the image of rubbish resurfacing from another level or from below (so from the ground or the air), against a slogan that takes a stand and offers an easily accessible solution for everyone: Bicycle is the Message.
The message for these creative pieces, developed in collaboration with Elastic Interface®, reads:
Every bike ride is an act of love for the planet and a positive boost for our own health.
When we ride, we slow down inside and out. Getting out on our bikes directly connects us to the world around us and helps us to reprioritise what really matters, the essentials.
When we ride, we are free, we respect nature, and we help to transform towns and cities into safer, healthier and better places to live. But we all know how much this land of freedom, our planet, is under threat. And we may be the last generations who can actually do something to prevent its destruction.
We need to re-establish the rules from the bottom up to initiate a major change from the top down. So, if it is true that making hard, brave decisions is the only way to reverse the progression of climate change, it is equally true that we can all make a difference in our everyday lives.
Together we can build a future in which well-informed, conscious use of environmental resources is the norm. A world in which the bike is seen as a vital means of transport for saving our planet and a form of collective social action.