Transylvania Trail
Branding, Website and Campaign
Key Features
Home, The Route, The Why, FAQ, Get the Guide
In English and Romanian, on desktop and phone
- Home Page: The ride in one scroll, from the opening film to the call to join.
- The Route: A 3D map, the route map and the elevation profile, with the numbers riders plan around.
- The Why: The idea of unsupported riding, written to be felt rather than sold.
- FAQ: Bikes, sleeping, getting to Sibiu, safety, and what to do if something breaks.
- Get the Guide: A free guide in exchange for an email, so interest turns into a list.
- Two Languages: Every page in English and Romanian.
Introduction
Client and Project
About Transylvania Trail
Transylvania Trail is a 520 km self-supported bikepacking loop through the heart of Romania, starting and finishing in Sibiu. It links gravel tracks, forest roads and quiet country lanes with Saxon villages, fortified churches and working farms, over more than 7,200 meters of climbing.
It is not a race. Riders carry what they need, choose where to eat and sleep, and ride at their own pace. The first edition ran from 4 to 10 June 2026.
The organizers had a route and a clear idea of the experience, but nothing to show it with: no name on the map, no identity and no website. They needed a brand that felt as wild as the trail and a site that could turn curiosity into riders.
My Responsibilities
- Brand identity: logo, color palette, typography, brand guidelines.
- Website: UI/UX design and WordPress development, English and Romanian, guide sign-up.
- Campaign: social media posts, event print, and the promo video’s creative direction and graphics.
Brand Exploration
From concept to final mark
The identity was found in three rounds. A first concept tested the name Transylvania Track with two mark ideas, a rider and a folded map. Twelve logo directions followed, from fortified churches to bike parts, and the chosen TT mark was then set out in brand guidelines covering the logo, color, type and imagery. Each round was shown to the organizers, so the final mark was their choice and they could see what it was chosen over.
Name and vision
Version 1, the rider
Version 2, the folded map
Cover
Logo mark
Primary colors
Typography
Logo design
Two letter Ts, one upright and one turned, lock together into a single block, and the space inside them is filled with contour lines from a topographic map. It reads as TT at favicon size and as terrain up close, a trail drawn inside the name. Set in a mustard square beside an Oxanium wordmark and the line An Unsupported Bikepacking Adventure, it holds on petrol, on light grounds, and in one color for print.
Style Guide
Color and Font
The palette comes from the land the route crosses: petrol for forests at dusk, mustard for wheat fields and hay, coral for the red roofs of Saxon villages. Oxanium, a squared technical face, sets every headline in capitals like a road sign or a frame number, and IBM Plex Sans keeps long reading text calm and clear.
Branding
Mood board
One identity from the start line to the feed. The rider jersey carries the contour lines across the chest, the bottle and billboard take the mark in a single color, and the ads and the website use the same petrol ground, so every touchpoint looks like part of the same ride.
Rider jersey
Billboard
Bottle
Social ad
Website on every screen
Event Print
First edition, Sibiu
For the first edition the brand had to work in a field in Sibiu, not only on a screen. The start and finish backdrop, the finisher and trail flags, frame stickers and A5 plates for bikes and bags were all set up for print with bleed and cut lines.
Start and finish backdrop
A5 bike plate
A5 bag tag
Finisher and trail flags
Circle sticker
Frame sticker
Sitemap
Five pages, in English and Romanian
Five pages, each answering one question a rider asks before committing: what is it, where does it go, why ride it, what do I need to know, and how do I get the details. Every page also exists in Romanian, and every page ends with the same invitation to join the first edition.
- Opening film
- Ride stats
- Gravel adventure
- Not a race
- The soul of the trail
- Living history
- Route map
- Route breakdown
- Landscape
- Your time, your pace
- Yet together
- Slow travel
- Connection
- Bikes and terrain
- Sleeping and food
- Getting to Sibiu
- Safety
- Guide form
- Guide by email
Home Page
Desktop View
The home page opens on a drone shot of riders on a gravel road through the vineyards and a single line: Discover Europe’s last wilderness. Three numbers follow, 520 km, 7,200 m and self-supported, then the story moves from the gravel to the philosophy to the first edition, with a way to register or watch the film at every turn.
The Route
The loop and its stops
Riders plan a 520 km ride around three questions: where it goes, how hard it climbs, and what the surface is like. The route page answers each with a picture before a paragraph: a 3D relief map that places the loop in Romania, then a route map that names the stops worth riding for, from the Alba Carolina citadel to Sighișoara and Viscri, with Sibiu as the start and finish.
3D relief map, the loop in Romania
Route map, with the stops worth riding for
Inside Pages
The Route, The Why, FAQ, Get the Guide
The inside pages share one frame: a full-width photograph with the title in mustard capitals, then the content on a light ground marked with contour lines. The FAQ sets every question in coral so it can be scanned, and the guide page asks only for a name and an email.
The Route
The Why
FAQ
Get the Guide
Responsive Design
Mobile Version
Most riders find the trail on a phone, from a post or a friend’s link. On mobile the film still opens the page, the stats stack into one column, the menu folds into a mustard panel, and the route map and guide form stay full width so nothing has to be zoomed.
Not a race
Route breakdown
Yet together
FAQ
Get the guide
Navigation menu
Social Media
Launch campaign
The launch campaign ran on Instagram and Facebook before there were riders to show. The posts carry the same petrol ground, mustard headlines and torn edge as the website, and a four slide carousel reads as one panorama when swiped, walking from a fabled land to the riders who will cross it.
Carousel post, four slides that read as one panorama
Promo Video
Creative direction and graphics
The film was shot by the organizers’ crew. I set the direction for how it should look and be cut, from wide drone shots of the villages to riders on the gravel, and designed the title cards and the closing frame in the brand’s type and color, so the video reads as part of the same campaign.
Transylvania Trail promo film, 1:28
Title card, Discover
Title card, A land of legends
Title card, The story begins in 2026
Closing frame
What Transylvania Trail gained
Outcomes of the launch
Transylvania Trail launched as a new event, so there was no earlier brand or site to improve on. What follows is what the identity, the website and the campaign gave the organizers, and the evidence for each.
About 50 riders joined the first edition, held from Sibiu on 4 to 10 June 2026, and registration is now closed.
A new event with no identity got a mark drawn from contour lines, a palette taken from the landscape and one type family, used on the site, jersey, flags, stickers and film.
The relief map, route map, elevation profile and the 520 km, 7,200 m and terrain split answer a rider’s first questions before they write in.
The Get the Guide page and the Stay in the loop form turn a visit from a post or the film into an email address the organizers own.
Every page in English and Romanian, and the FAQ covers flights to Sibiu and Cluj, trains, driving and parking for riders traveling in.
transylvaniatrail.com
Thank you!