POLL: Wyndy Milla - would the 'look' stop you buying?

mfin

http://www.wyndymilla.com/

This is out of interest, as I know they do great bikes and service and are nice guys ...but the 'look' of the Logos and Colour Schemes surely must be a love it or hate it thing, and is so different to everything else out there.

Grill

Absolutely not.

You do realise that you can customise the logos and paint any way you see fit, so it's really a non-issue. Mine looks nothing like any of the ones on their site.

ironman69

Totally Biased NO!!

As I intend to book myself in for a Massive Attack build in August.

As 'Grill' said it is totally up to the owner during the build process as to what goes on the bike - you can have a totally bare frame if you want!!!

I personally like the 'wacky' graphics - can't think of another manufacturer that has this sort of style, so for me it's a refreshing choice to have!!

IM

jamiemilbourn

Ill jump on this wagon as I have just put an order in...

Who wants a bike like all the rest on the road... When mine rolls out of the paint shop there won't be anything like it on the road!

Custom geometry, custom 'other bits' and custom colour & logos make this bespoke!

And the staff are friendly, knowledgeable and nothing is too much trouble.

Recomend.

thegreatdivide

All the logo options look like a fight with a copy of Viz.

16mm

thegreatdivide wrote:

All the logo options look like a fight with a copy of Viz.

Awesome, do they do a 'pathetic sharks' version?

Camcycle1974

A Sid the Sexist Wyndy Milla would be awsome.

diamonddog

I think they look funky so it wouldn't put me off.

thegreatdivide

Roger Mellie 'Profanisaurus' edition. Covered in words like 'fish mitten' and 'PG T*ts'.

vortice

More of a reason to buy them. A breath of fresh air.

mfin

The people who are put off aren't going to know you can personalise the look, and let's face it, lots of people wouldn't know how to make a bike look good and/or wouldn't have the inclination to do so.

I'm only saying this from a Marketing point of view, I just wondered if they limit their potential customer base with the instant marmite portrayal of their brand, and their name I suppose.

(This is only out of interest, as they might well not want any more business growth)

Anonymous

The style of the two shown would put me off but If it could look how I wanted it then perhaps that would be ok.

I am someone who tends to buy what they want regardless of its perception to others and as such the idea of buying something based on it being different is an odd concept to me.
If I felt this brand was bought by a lot of people just wanting to be different rather than because they actually liked it, that alone would put me off to be honest.

imposter2.0

mfin wrote:

The people who are put off aren't going to know you can personalise the look,

People that stupid shouldn't be buying them anyway.

mfin

Imposter wrote:

mfin wrote:

The people who are put off aren't going to know you can personalise the look,

People that stupid shouldn't be buying them anyway.

That's rubbish.

People can look for a bike, see some of the bikes that a make does and just think 'yuck'. Most of these people don't look at a bike they don't like the look of and immediately think 'oh, I wonder if I can completely change the look of it?', so they'd never go looking to see if you can and would never know you could.

Look at what was said above...

Carbonator wrote:

The style of the two shown would put me off but If it could look how I wanted it then perhaps that would be ok.

Now, if Carbonator hadn't read this thread and had just seen some bikes, would he actually have known you can change the look of them?

Plus, most of the people wanting them here are saying they are changing the look.

(remember, I didn't start this to knock them, cos I know it's great kit and they are great guys!)

greasedscotsman

I don't like the name. Reminds me of this fella...

imposter2.0

mfin wrote:

Plus, most of the people wanting them here are saying they are changing the look.

Which part of 'custom paint' are you struggling with? There is no 'look' - there is only the colours and designs chosen by the people who buy them.

giant_man

there's nowt wrong with the look, quite invidual imo, whether their frames are any good is the question ....

dmclite-3.0

Not for me, i find the whole Wyndymilla thing a bit twee and icky.

Philly8mt

thegreatdivide wrote:

All the logo options look like a fight with a copy of Viz.

Fantastic!

I'd like the Paul Whicker tall Vicar edition please .. Guess it would have to be black with white bits

LegendLust

Grill wrote:

Absolutely not.

You do realise that you can customise the logos and paint any way you see fit, so it's really a non-issue. Mine looks nothing like any of the ones on their site.

Ah but if your's doesn't look like a Wyndy Milla - is it a Wyndy Milla then?

Wyndy Milla is all about the 'brand'. If yours doesn't look like one is it then in fact a different frame made by Sarto?

It's not entirely like it but this scenario does remind me of the Ship of Theseus Paradox?

Grill

Mine will look more WyndyMilla than most. It's worth noting that although the frames are made by Sarto, they use tubing and geometry that are specific to WM. Look at Giant's fab- no one would accuse a Scott of being an 'off the shelf' Giant.

WM do 'sedate' as well, you just have to specify it. I find it incredibly boring and defeatist.


This one uses their classic font with the Union Jacks (although you can specify it without):

Anonymous

mfin wrote:

Carbonator wrote:

The style of the two shown would put me off but If it could look how I wanted it then perhaps that would be ok.

Now, if Carbonator hadn't read this thread and had just seen some bikes, would he actually have known you can change the look of them?

Hey, why pick on me :shock:

I would not have had a clue, but then again I only really noticed them on a thread which mentioned the fact.
Is the fact that they are customisable not part of the branding and something that would be obvious if you were in any way interested in them?

Name makes me think of a flatulent girl called Milly.
Is there a reason that every letter is upper case apart from the 'i' on some? That annoys me too lol.

Seems almost (not that I know anything about them) made to be a Marmite brand just to get non conformists to buy them.
Kind of opposite to Emperors new clothes lol

I like the white one

alihisgreat

Saw one of the MG Maxifuel guys riding one on Thursday at Rockingham and they look great to be honest

but does anything look good if it matches your kit?

LegendLust

Grill wrote:

Mine will look more WyndyMilla than most. It's worth noting that although the frames are made by Sarto, they use tubing and geometry that are specific to WM. Look at Giant's fab- no one would accuse a Scott of being an 'off the shelf' Giant.

WM do 'sedate' as well, you just have to specify it. I find it incredibly boring and defeatist.


This one uses their classic font with the Union Jacks (although you can specify it without):

That's my point though - that black understated frame isn't a Wyndy Milla to me. It might say it on the frame, but it doesn't 'feel' like one. Although they're not to my taste, WM have built up a strong, distinctive brand look. Why you'd want an understated WM is beyond me - there are other custom made carbon frames out there that deliver that understated look.

Grill

LegendLust wrote:

That's my point though - that black understated frame isn't a Wyndy Milla to me. It might say it on the frame, but it doesn't 'feel' like one. Although they're not to my taste, WM have built up a strong, distinctive brand look. Why you'd want an understated WM is beyond me - there are other custom made carbon frames out there that deliver that understated look.

Completely agree. I ended up forking over a princely sum for custom paint so that I could have a unique bike as the last thing I'd want is everyone and their uncle on my WM!

Brassknocker

There's something quite British (English) I like about them, perhaps it's that they remind me of my teenage years ( and their bike names) the old teenage/unobtainable dreams about Dave Yates and Chas Roberts Dogs Bolx custom MTBs etc... I think that's what they're aiming for.

I like the individuality of it all, and the Viz thing, but I really hate the yoof spelling of the name (as I did the immature D.o.g.s.b.o.l.x. thing), that bothers my pedantic nature.
I quite like the Trumpton /Camberwick Green (whichever one it is!?) link.

There's a fine line when using the Union Jack - it can all too often be a bit 'sunburnt-beer-belly-bulldog-cheesy-tattoos-in-LePub-all-day-English-breakfast' I think.

Based on that ...I'm out.

mfin

Imposter wrote:

mfin wrote:

Plus, most of the people wanting them here are saying they are changing the look.

Which part of 'custom paint' are you struggling with? There is no 'look' - there is only the colours and designs chosen by the people who buy them.

Well... once the initial WyndyMilla people had voted, you can now see the swing of voting sort of proves my inquisitiveness as to whether the 'look' puts people off.

My point was whether the portrayal of the brand and its imaging puts a lot of people off, it seems it does.

I KNOW people can customise them, but people don't know this at a glance and think 'yuck'. That's the point.

You say 'there are is (are) only the colours and designs chosen by the people who buy them', but that is not true, look at the standard designs.

I don't mind if people want to defend the 'designs' one bit, everyone has their own tastes... but with more people saying they're put off than not it sort of makes me wonder if the branding affects their business growth, but, they might not want to 'grow', I dunno... some businesses don't, it might not be their aim.

mfin

Carbonator wrote:

mfin wrote:

Carbonator wrote:

The style of the two shown would put me off but If it could look how I wanted it then perhaps that would be ok.

Now, if Carbonator hadn't read this thread and had just seen some bikes, would he actually have known you can change the look of them?

Hey, why pick on me :shock:

I would not have had a clue, but then again I only really noticed them on a thread which mentioned the fact.
Is the fact that they are customisable not part of the branding and something that would be obvious if you were in any way interested in them?

Name makes me think of a flatulent girl called Milly.
Is there a reason that every letter is upper case apart from the 'i' on some? That annoys me too lol.

Seems almost (not that I know anything about them) made to be a Marmite brand just to get non conformists to buy them.
Kind of opposite to Emperors new clothes lol

I like the white one

Well, to the bold bit, in this day and age of looking at a bike in seconds and deciding whether you like it, would you actually reach the point of being interested in them?


...I think there's very few people on here who could design a bike's graphics properly, I've designed for 20 years, and whilst I know what I'm doing, I'd want a long time before I could get a load of logo-ing right on any bike. Get your average club pleb and he'd have no chance of designing something that looks good. (also, designers will look for the flow in the potential letter shapes in different fonts, with wyndymilla you have very little chance, so you'd have to design to detract attention from the name if you were to write the brand name on the bike).

Grill

WyndyMilla have an in house designer, so you don't have to be artistically inclined to get something unique that looks good. I went back and forth with him over a week and the final design is actually the sixth revision. The logos shown on the bikes are the usual stickers under the clearcoat but you can have them handpainted if you want to customise them.

Anonymous

mfin wrote:

...I think there's very few people on here who could design a bike's graphics properly, I've designed for 20 years, and whilst I know what I'm doing, I'd want a long time before I could get a load of logo-ing right on any bike. Get your average club pleb and he'd have no chance of designing something that looks good. (also, designers will look for the flow in the potential letter shapes in different fonts, with wyndymilla you have very little chance, so you'd have to design to detract attention from the name if you were to write the brand name on the bike).

Agree with that lol.
I feel I could have a very good go at it and the bike would look great, but ...........

a/ It would take ages to do (like Grill said).
b/ I feel there would probably be limitations to what they could do (in terms of what I wanted).
c/ I would probably get the bike and then think of how it could have been better.

I think design sometimes has to 'evolve' and the first draft of anything, or just doing something for the first time is always going to be a bit pants.

I am a lot less critical of someone else's work than my own, so all in all I would rather just pick someone else's design and personalise it in other ways.
I quite like the idea of picking the colour of your bike, but feel such bikes (like Trek or Rouke from memory) often look very plain and have no graphic content.

Guess I just like the mass produced by robots look rather than the imperfection of handmade stuff. The word 'handmade' on anything generally puts me off lol.

mfin

Grill wrote:

WyndyMilla have an in house designer, so you don't have to be artistically inclined to get something unique that looks good. I went back and forth with him over a week and the final design is actually the sixth revision. The logos shown on the bikes are the usual stickers under the clearcoat but you can have them handpainted if you want to customise them.

Well, of course they have, noone would be expected to supply final artwork, most people are incapable of it, wouldn't know the formats, have the software, understand to supply it.

But design by committee often results in something not very good too.

The saving grace is a lot of people have no real taste, so it doesn't matter, they'd just be pleased get something personalised. I mean, if people all had taste, why are the roads 95% full of awful looking cars, a lot of people actually choose to buy these cars (apart from force feeding company car models) with one of the main reasons being that they like the look of them!