COMMUNITY & CULTURE
When Design Belongs to the Community
Design is often used to make a brand more visible. But it can also be a way of contributing to a culture we genuinely care about.
That was the starting point for Bay Area Classics, a collection of stickers celebrating the roads, climbs, landmarks, humor, and rituals of cycling around San Francisco and the Bay Area. The project grew from riding these roads, spending time with local cyclists, and recognizing the references and experiences they share.
From the beginning, we made one deliberate choice: Studio Picante would appear on the sticker sheet, but not on the individual stickers.
Once removed, each sticker would belong to the cyclist who chose it. It could live on a bike, water bottle, laptop, toolbox, or anywhere else. We created the collection, but the riders would decide where it went next.
The response was immediate. More than 150 stickers were picked up in the first week. Cyclists began asking for them around town, stopping us during rides, sending messages, and sharing photos of where they had placed them.
Ivan from Thursdays, one of the Bay Area’s most respected cycling teams, asked for a large stack after riders repeatedly approached him looking for stickers.
Soon after, David, the owner of Pixlcat Coffee, offered space at the café as a pickup point. Pixlcat is already a familiar gathering place for local cyclists. Riders stop there after crossing the Golden Gate Bridge and climbing Hawk Hill in the Marin Headlands, which we called The Bay Area Suffering Playground, or after sprinting laps around the Polo Field, known on the stickers as Oval of Death, a name developed with local rider Andres Siller.
These names came from the experience of riding here: the effort, humor, repetition, and shared suffering that turn ordinary locations into meaningful places. Coffee, conversation, and Pixlcat’s much-loved mochis are part of that same post-ride ritual. It felt like a natural home for the collection.
What began inside the studio was soon being passed between riders, shared during training sessions, and picked up from a neighborhood café. The project had found a place within the culture it was created to celebrate.
That was the most satisfying result.
Not simply that the stickers were spreading, but that people recognized something of their own experience in them. Familiar roads, local expressions, and shared rituals had become small objects they wanted to keep, use, and pass along.
For Studio Picante, Bay Area Classics was a reminder that design does not always need to ask for attention. Sometimes, it can create a moment of recognition, step back, and let the community carry it forward.
The result was simple: joy.
RECOGNITION
Riders Made the Cut
The Riders Sports identity has been shortlisted in the Communication Arts 2026 Design Competition.
RECOGNITION
Packaged for the World Stage
We are proud to share that our packaging work for Glorious has been shortlisted at the Pentawards 2025.
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