BRAND STRATEGY, VISUAL IDENTITY AND PACKAGING DESIGN FOR HÖVDING
Challenge the Ordinary
How do you make the invisible impossible to ignore? Hövding, the world’s first airbag for cyclists, was a game-changer – and it needed an identity to match. Neumeister’s mission? To create a brand strategy, visual identity, and packaging design that captured the brand’s innovation, passion, and compassion.
Packaging Design
Packaging Implementation
Visual Identity
Reinventing the helmet
Hövding was the world’s first bicycle helmet with a built-in airbag. Swedish industrial design students Anna and Terese set out to create a helmet that urban cyclists would actually want to wear – and wear with a smile. From day one, their motto was ‘omöjligt triggar’ – or, in English, ‘nothing is impossible’.
Challenge Convention
When the brand and design work began, Hövding was present in 15 markets and had earned recognition across the industry. A brand built on challenging conventional thinking needed an identity to match – confident, relevant, and forward-looking.
Designed to Disrupt
With a product so groundbreaking, sparking debate and even division amongst cyclists and safety proponents alike, an appropriate palette was required for Hövding’s brazen voyage into a sea of naysayers and doubters. Inspiration was taken from warning marks found on roads, bold yellow diagonal stripes cutting across stretches of black asphalt, signalling for traffic to keep out. This palette was fundemental in the creation a highly distinct and recognisable brand, and befitting of a product used predominently by urban cyclists.
A Logo in Motion
The Hövding logo. Bold and geometric, the typeface conveys confidence and reliability. The italicized letters create a sense of forward motion, while the lowercase “g” subtly resembles a head with a Hövding airbag around a cyclist’s neck — an understated nod to the product itself.
Twice the impact
The cut wordmark runs across two packages, locking them together. The result? Double impact and double presence on the shelf. Key selling points are highlighted directly on the packaging – making the benefits impossible to miss.
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