The design for The Distinguished Gentleman’s Drive 2024 pulled back from the previous year’s use of all over maps to create something more sleek and stylish with a deep burgundy colour palette paired with a teal inspired by a factory tone of the iconic Mercedes 300SL.

Thinking about other ways to make the event feel ‘international’ I came upon the idea of using names of cities where the drives take place as a visual device, instead of the usual cultural landmarks. This created a new and interesting way to integrate each city into the event visuals without using resorting to cliches and helping each ride feel more involved and connected. I then animated the city names in ticker-style way inside the custom DGD acronym design. This new DGD event specific logo was inspired by classic art deco type and also sleek car badge design. I wanted to keep it as simple and bold as possible across the entire branding with no texture or noise, another nod towards the car aspect of the event, where a beautifully smooth and glossy paint job makes the design of the car really shine.

This design aesthestic was extended across all materials: branding, social media, marketing, advertising, merchandise, website, signage and more utilising smooth animations to seamlessly integrate photos with the illustrations using the logos shapes as borders and cut off areas. The styling continued across to the merchandise with such items as enamel pins, woven patches, socks and more, ensuring all designed elements of the event connected across style and colour palette.