What is this stuff?

We create signs, shirts, stickers, and other things for people who are into bikes for transportation and sport. Our motivations were and are two-fold: one, we think our existing transportation system is completely f*cked up (unhealthy, unfair, unsustainable, and un- a lot of other things), and two, we love all things bikes, from commuting to racing, road to mountain and gravel, ebikes to folding bikes, and more. (We also dig scooters, eboards, and all last-mile rides. Viva the e-transportation revolution!) The first motivation led to twentyisplentysigns.com, because, among other things, we couldn’t find a good 20 IS PLENTY sign to stick in our yard. The second motivation led to bikesignals™, in part because, once again, we couldn’t find some of the things (even just simple labels for our gear) we wanted to have.

Our Artwork

We love the bold graphics and typography of road signs. (Pretty obvious at this point, isn’t it?!) And we like to play with the seriousness of these regulatory signs. Partly that’s because we can’t wholly respect a system of “traffic control” signs that has been built almost exclusively for car drivers. So our FantasyBikeWorld designs are meant to be both serious and amusing— our current transportation system sucks and makes us seriously mad, but we know that the utopianism of a design like BIKE LANE NEVER ENDS is a fantasy. (Or is it? In the Netherlands, bike lanes go on almost forever…) Anyway, the majority of our designs are original and are the copyright of bikesignals ltd co. In some cases, we may partner with other artists and designers, or reproduce artwork in the public domain, and note this accordingly. As for “Twenty Is Plenty” and other versions of that slogan, we believe that this slogan and signs with such slogans have been widely used and are in the public domain, and we don’t claim copyright to the slogan or graphics with the slogan.

We are also happy to talk about our designs. Have comments or ideas for designs? Get in touch at info@bikesignals.com. Want a sticker design, for example, on a t-shirt? Get in touch. Want a design shown on the front of a t-shirt on the back? You know what to do. If you are interested in a custom design, some thing, as noted below.

Note on Product Images and Print Resolution

Original images are individually sized and proportioned for each product type. The maximum image width is typically around 8” for our most commonly used unisex shirts, and typically 6.5” to 7” wide for women’s shirts; our printer scales the images from there for different size shirts. Designs are similarly proportioned for mugs, canvas prints, etc. (In other words, the same image isn’t simply pulled from a database and applied to every product in the same way.) In terms of detail views, we’re working on a magnifier; if you really need a closer view of a design, email us.

Vintage Steel Bike Prints™

The images in our Vintage Steel Prints™ Collection are out of copyright and in the public domain. Most come from the glory days of cycling in the 1880s, 1890s, and early 1900s. We search out the coolest images and improve them— cleaning them up, improving the colors, sometimes re-coloring them completely, and otherwise making a print-ready image. The value-added aspects of the images are our handiwork and we claim the copyright of those aspects of these images insofar as allowed, but you can find the originals with a little searching and do your own thing if you choose.

BikesignalsCustom™ Art & Design

Have an idea for custom design or privately branded product? Send us a query at info@bikesignals.com with your contact info, description of the design and product, quantities, and how it would be used and/or sold. We are selective in terms of time and products for custom work but will consider all proposals and let you know.

Products & Orders

A lot of our products are print-on-demand. This is a bit more expensive, but in many cases it is the best way for us to provide as many products as we think people would like to choose from in terms of color, size, material, and product type. Consider a t-shirt: for one design in both a unisex and a women’s fit shirt, with up to 6 different sizes for each shirt and 6 different colors between them, that’s 144 completely different shirts in terms of shirt type, color, and size. We can’t preprint and inventory that many. Other products we keep in inventory, especially when we think people may be interested in buying the item in greater quantities, especially stickers and (20 IS PLENTY) signs. As for order handling, as you can guess, products that are print-on-demand are shipped by our manufacturers and products that we have on hand are shipped by us from Central, SC.

Print Colors

Colors are tricky. There’s the RGB system for screens, the CMYK system for printing, and there’s the variability of people’s devices and device settings. As you make selections based on color, please keep in mind that things on screens and things IRL do not match exactly. But if something seems wildly off, let us know.

Community Organizations

We got into all this as frustrated activists, or mostly just frustrated (that we didn’t live in a real fantasy bike world like Holland). So, if you represent a community group that is looking for TWENTY IS PLENTY signs or something else in bulk, get in touch and let’s try to work something out.

Retailers

If you’re a retail store or LBS owner or manager, we’d obviously be delighted and grateful for you to consider stocking some of our products. Please get in touch and let’s chat.

Returns

Depending on how the order was fulfilled, whether by us directly or by one of our print-on-demand manufacturers, a return may be handled by us or them. We won’t give you a run-around if the product has a defect. We want you to be a repeat customer and to tell your friends about our stuff. That said, we can’t accept returns on things that we cannot resell as perfectly new, and we cannot accept returns on any water bottles because most people don’t want a previously owned water bottle. But if you’re dissatisfied, email us and tell us why. We’ll try to make you happy and try to adjust our product if there’s a problem with it.

Sustainability

We know there is a lot of apparel waste in the world, and waste in general. Of course, our overarching ambition is to promote walking and biking and the reform of our transportation system. In that sense, we hope that our advocacy and others’ reduces car trips, which is ultimately beneficial for the environment and public health. For water bottles, we’ve looked into various biodegradable products but determined that recycling plastic bottles is better than putting a biodegradable bottle in a landfill. For shirts, we plan to offer organic cotton options in the near future. For packaging, while we cannot control our vendors and manufacturers, we use paper bags and mailers instead of plastic for our packaging and shipping.

About Us

twentyisplentysigns™ and bikesignals™ was started by Pete Laurence, a writer and graphic designer trained as an architect. Peter is a longtime student of Jane Jacobs (and author of the biography Becoming Jane Jacobs) and urban design and city planning in general, as well as a longtime bike crazy person, and the related combination of advocacy and everything-cycling forms the bikesignals™ platform. We're now a growing collaboration of friends and family members, with the ambition of creating a global network. Our team includes Pete Laurence, Creative Director; Jane Laurence, Vibe Consultant; Henry Laurence, Chief Science Officer; and Claire Laurence, Animal Handler. If you’re an artist or designer interested in a collab, let us know.

Contacts

Thanks for visiting! Hit us up at info@bikesignals.com.