Melbourne BUG is a Bicycle User Group for the City of Melbourne municipality. Anyone who lives in, cycles through or is interested in cycling in the CBD, Carlton, North Melbourne, Kensington, West Melbourne, East Melbourne, Docklands, Southbank or on St Kilda Rd is welcome to join or contribute to Melbourne BUG.
The Melbourne BUG logo is a stylised representation of Melbourne's CBD showing the main grid as black lines and highlighting geographic reference points of interest to many different types of cyclist.
The horizontal blue line shows the Yarra River and the Yarra Trail shared paths, while the blue panel at the top left represents Victoria Harbour in Docklands. The red and yellow coloured panels (reading clockwise from the top) are symbolic of:
The logo is inspired by the work of Dutch artist Piet Mondrian (1872-1944), who is looked upon as one of the founders of abstract art. Horizontal and vertical black lines outlining blocks of pure white, red, blue or yellow express his concept of ultimate harmony and equilibrium. This distinctive style is known as Neo-Plasticism.
It is appropriate to use a Dutch painter as the inspiration for this logo since the Netherlands is synonymous with urban cycling. Rather than choosing to represent bikes, wheels, cogs, etc (as many cycling groups do in their logos), I have chosen to focus on our urban environment. We use our bikes to enhance our lives in the inner city, after all. And cyclists enhance the city unlike any other form of transportation.
Justin Mansfield
Melbourne BUG member and logo designer