From one designer to another.

Dear Rock-n-Roll Marathon Design crew,

Can we chit-chat for a second? Let me just say, I love your entire brand identity. Kudos to you for taking a sport that didn't really have much recognition, spinning it on it's side and making it look as badass as it actually is. Not gonna lie, I kind of only ever want to run your races because of that (and the amazingly organized and fun environment your races have. Granted I have only run one so far, but I have plans to do 4 more- I need that Rockstar medal in my life. I've done tons of research via the internets and my opinion seems to be the consensus). 

With that being said, can we please talk about the medal situation? Clearly, I run for the bling of it and the majority of the time, yours are quite amazing. I had the CMM medal picture hanging on my wall for months before the race for motivation before I actually ran it. It's gorgeous. Very clever use of the guitar pick as the focus instead of the actual guitar, which is generally overused but appropriate for your events. I love all the subtle design elements that you have to pay attention to find. From one designer to another, kudos to you.

The Mardi Gras marathon medal? Omg. I'll foreverkick myself in the ass for not just going to run it. It was a perfect excuse to see the family and get a kick ass medal. Total win win. I was trained, but I was scared. Now I'm sadly without that gorgeous medal, but I digress. 

I can go on and on about your medals- Vegas as the playing card? VA Beach as the sand dollar? Clearly my idea of a well designed medal is one large element as the focus with small details you have to look at a second longer to get. Others will disagree. My best friend prefers medals that are visually busy with an obnoxious amount of images representing the city in which the race is run.

A prime example is your Rhode Island medal. I will give you this one because it is the inaugural race and I'm ok with that.

What I'm not ok with?

Seriously? I get what you were trying to do and I love the idea but the execution? Do I really have to tell you what this looks like? 

Oh well. I guess you can't win them all. 

-A

PS- If in the future you need some pointers or a concept, just let me know. I'm always willing.