Velo 2 by Jon Marshall for Beeline
The Beeline 2, designed by Pentagram’s Jon Marshall.
“As an industrial designer it’s rare to get the opportunity to design something twice,” says Jon Marshall, a partner at Pentagram.
This year, however, Marshall has been able to revisit his back-catalogue. In 2015, while design director at Map Project Office, Marshall designed the Velo for Beeline, a digital navigation device for bicycles. Now with Pentagram, Marshall has returned to create the second generation of the device.
The original Velo attached to a bicycle’s handlebars, pairing with an app to provide non-obtrusive directions to cyclists: either a compass mode that directs riders to their destination, or a more specific route-planning mode. The new device, which has launched on Kickstarter, follows the same principles as the original, but updates the device with a subtly refined form that takes advantage of new software developments.
The Belo 2 has an updated app and new machine-learning algorithm, which is updated by real-time road ratings from cyclists – optimising routes in favour of quieter roads with less traffic and pollution.
This new functionality required plus and minus buttons on the device, meaning that the original Velo had to be updated. The new device now functions as a four-way button: users press on the top or bottom of the screen to change modes, and to the left and right of the device to submit road ratings. This in turn has allowed the device’s user interface to grow – it is 63 per cent larger than the original Velo’s screen.
“Having developed the original Beeline Velo at Map five years ago, it was amazing to work on the Velo 2,” says Marshall. “I had the opportunity to work with updated technologies and new features but also to respond to the very different world that we live in now.”
The Velo 2 has already exceeded its Kickstarter target of £14,123 – at the time of writing, the device has attracted £161,217 in funding.
“It was a delight working with Jon, as he had a great deal of understanding and context for our products from having worked on the original Beeline device,” say Sam Lucas and Tom Putnam, Beeline’s head of design and co-founder respectively. “However, he was also able to challenge our assumptions and help us to really clarify our design language, landing on a final form that initially feels familiar, but is packed with small surprises and details that elevate the user experience.”
RELATED LINKS
Velo 2 Kickstarter campaign