Something Real Out of Nothing
Brand Identity, Campaign & Launch. Zero Budget.
Company
Chimera Electric Vehicles
Role
Founding Brand Designer
Sole brand and creative lead, freelance alongside a full-time role at AccuWeather. Worked directly with a highly particular founder. Co-developed the campaign copy across many iterations and owned all visual decisions independently on near-zero budget.
Brand Identity
UX/UI
Campaign Direction
Community Building
Visual System
Chimera came to me because the founder needed someone to make the world take them seriously.
On a near-zero budget, with an Indiegogo launch as the forcing function, I built the entire brand: identity, photography, campaign, app, press kit, and community.
Brand Indentity
The founder had strong, specific instincts about the mark and final say on the logo. I taught him Illustrator and worked iteratively with him while owning all surrounding visual decisions independently. The result: tight, geometric, with a technical edge that felt both engineered and street-credible.
Photography Direction
I directed and shot all photography: dark backgrounds, dramatic lighting, no lifestyle staging. Hero images established the brand register immediately, the bike backlit against a warehouse window, specs overlaid in clean type. Technical callout diagrams were clean and minimal, echoing the ethos of the bike and giving press and community something they could actually read and share.
Blueprint Print System
Using the founder’s CAD technical drawings as a graphic language, I created a blueprint system: cyan field, white linework, bold spec typography. This became the brand’s most distinctive visual signature. It communicated in-house engineering credibility, differentiated Chimera from every other ebike aesthetic, and produced a campaign-ready visual system from assets that already existed at no cost.
Indiegogo Campaign
All campaign visuals: photography, edits, illustrations, GIFs, graphic elements. Copy developed collaboratively through many iterations with the founder, his instinct was highly technical; the work was translating that specificity into language that converted. The campaign raised $111,065 against a $92,400 goal. Fully funded in 72 hours.
Controller App
I led the UX/UI design of the Chimera companion app — one-click Bluetooth pairing, fine-grained motor control, battery profile management, range and temperature monitoring. UI consistent with the brand’s no-frills sensibility: direct, functional, nothing decorative.
Press & Community
No agency. No paid placements. A downloadable press kit and content that earned its own audience. Coverage in InsideEVs, New Atlas, AutoEvolution, Electric Bike Action Magazine, and TrendHunter. The community moment that captured what the bike could actually do: BMX champion Ryan Williams rode and flipped it at Nitro Circus in 2022 — later confirmed when Williams commented on the footage on the Chimera Instagram. Not staged. Not paid.
Challenge
A philosophy professor built his dream electric BMX from scratch — custom frame, patent-pending high-drive motor, hand-assembled in Los Angeles. The bike was extraordinary. The brand was nonexistent.
Approach
The constraint became the strategy. Technical with streetwear sensibility. The signature move: using the founder’s CAD drawings as a graphic system, instantly giving the brand engineering credibility from assets that already existed.