Photo courtesy of BAM.
You’ve probably heard by now that David Byrne, famous for “burning down the house” as lead singer of iconic New York City band Talking Heads, has been reborn as an avid bicyclist and transportation policy wonk, giving power point presentations in D.C. and the Big Apple. A few years ago, Byrne wrote The Bicycle Diaries — a book, actually worth a read, about his tours of global cities by bike. In 2008, he partnered with the NYC Department of Transportation on a series of wild bicycle racks.
Now, Byrne has created a new set of funky, typographical racks for the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). And bonus: These things will change over time.
Photo by Dino Perucci.
Byrne stumbled into creating his first racks via a bicycle rack competition in which he was serving as a judge. When he decided to submit his own design, the transportation department “enthusiastically agreed to install” it. His first nine racks were designed for particular spots across Brooklyn and Manhattan: A spot near Bergdorf Goodman got the high heel rack, while Wall Street got the dollar sign rack.
Byrne’s new racks at BAM come in the form of letters. The Brokelyn blog reports that Byrne realized he could spell out most words using a “semi circle, line, and ‘v’ shape,” so he came up with interesting phrases like “PINK CROWN” and “MICRO LIP” for his first text installation. According to that site, the words will periodically change:
What’s more, you might get to help design the next round of bike racks. BAM says it will reach out via social media to solicit suggestions for additional letters and words to be used for the “ever-evolving installation.”
To learn more about Byrne’s love of bikes, check out The Bicycle Diaries.
