VCU Student wins bike rack design contest

Austin Walker
Staff Writer

One VCU Graphic Design student won $2,500 and the opportunity for his design to be featured throughout Richmond in the latest GoBike! Design Contest.

John Sampson, a sophomore graphic design major, won the contest, which involved designing the bike rack for the upcoming Union Cycliste Internationale Road World Championship. Currently, 75 participating countries will be coming to Richmond to compete for the international title.

“In the end, for the contest, they were asking for something that represented Richmond,” Sampson said. “What I was inspired to do was something beyond that. To represent the world coming to Richmond.”

His design is likely to be seen by hundreds of thousands of viewers, as the World Championship is expected to bring nearly 450,000 spectators and over a thousand participants. International attention will be directed at the streets of Richmond, and his name will be featured on a plaque below each of the racks.

“Art is generally subjective,” Sampson said. “I’m expecting many people will love it and many people to not be big fans of it, but that’s just the nature of things.”

The design featured a bicycle wheel, with the spokes at angles representative of the streets of Richmond. Around the rim, 75 evenly spaced marks represent the many countries that are all meeting for the championship.

The design contest was held by i.e., a local community initiative aiming to bring artists and creativity recognition in the city. Their Go! Bike contest received over 80 submissions which were judged on specific criteria and voted on by a committee. Sampson’s design was chosen for its appeal and practicality, as well its powerful message about the convergence of the world into Richmond.

Sampson said he received the call telling him that he’d won the contest while he was in class, and was unable to answer it immediately. He’d been anxiously waiting for word on whether his design has been chosen or not.

“All I was thinking was ‘Oh my God, I think I won,’” Sampson said.

UCI holds the annual Road World Championship in a different country each year, and it has not been in the United States since the 1986 competition in Colorado Springs. Richmond placed offers, much like countries do when bargaining to host the Olympics or World Cup, against other cities after officials decided it would be held in the U.S. In 2014, the championships awarded nearly $250,000 of prize money total and almost half a million spectators are expected to attend the event.