Ahura Pop-Up Exhibit

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A pop-up exhibit set in an urban up-and-coming city that reflects the Ahura lifestyle, a sub-brand of Mazda, and serves as the space to introduce the Ahura bike, Verge

Credit: Mary McGreggor, Rebecca Sun, and Mohammad Soudachi

Bike Credit: Rebekah Hilton, Elizabeth Fristoe, Bridgid Winston

Our project began by doing research on the Mazda car company, because we needed to understand our parent brand before we began creating the sub-brand. We analyzed their heritage, brand, marketing strategy, and cars. We created a graphic to display the most important attributes of their visual brand language.

Visual Brand Language by Mary McGreggor

We next sought to understand the Mazda customer. What are their top priorities when buying a Mazda car? We came out with a comprehensive statement that encompasses the voice of our customer, expressing their needs and wants.

Graphics by Rebekah Hilton

Additionally, we created a persona that displays the demographics of the typical Mazda customer.

Target User by Rebekah Hilton
Graphics by Rebecca Sun

In beginning to create our brand, we set in place visual attributes that encompassed Mazda's core values, but set ourselves apart from Mazda by devising our own unique attributes. We addressed and built upon the idea of transitions and adaptations because we believe this is an important issue facing many bikers today. How are bike users able to transition to every point of their journey without hassle? How are they able to adapt to any challenges that may come up in their journey?

The name of our brand is AHURA, reminiscent of the inspiration for the creation of Mazda: Ahura Mazda, the god of everything.

"Based in the beauty and simplicity of balance, we connect light individual transportation solutions to users, providing them with an enjoyable experience focused on the ability to

adapt to their environment at any point in their journey."

Visual Brand Language by Mary McGreggor

In beginning to ideate for the bike, we created a design objective and design criteria for the bike, because the environment is built around the bike. These statements were carefully crafted based on our research of the Mazda car brand, their customer base, and our personal goals as a brand. We looked to these statements throughout the project to ensure we were fulfilling our goals for the environment at every step of the process.

Design Objective: Create a light individual transport vehicle that is seen as a vehicle and not a burden.

Design Criteria: Create a light individual transport vehicle that communicates with other on automobiles on the road and gives the rider a strong road presence during their commute. The redesigned silhouette of the vehicle should push the traditional form of a bicycle to be a more significant part of the transportation ecosystem. It should provide a convenient and secure transition from being parked to being driven and a safe interaction on the road at any point for the rider. If electrically driven, it should be adaptable to the rider’s preference for performance and level of assistance.

Bike by Rebekah Hilton, Elizabeth Fristoe, Bridgid Winston

Rendering by Rebekah Hilton

We then began ideation of what our exhibit would look like, focusing on the user journey and experience of the user in the space.

Our Objective:

"To create a fun space to introduce an accessible and personalized biking experience through an interactive exhibit that displays adaptability in form and function, and the ability to transition into different segments of the journey with ease and comfort."

Put Simply...
To create a space that introduces the Ahura lifestyle and an improved commuting experience for the everyday user.

After further refinement, we created two CAD models based off of the two concepts below to visualize what our exhibit would look like in the digital space.

Concept 1

Drawing by Mary McGreggor

Rendering by Mohammad Soudachi

Concept 2

Drawing by Mary McGreggor

We integrated these two concepts to create our final concept, and focused in on details we had not considered before. We considered ideas such as:

-How can we make the space more open?

-How can we better tell the story of how the user experiences the space?

Rendering by Mary McGreggor

We created a moodboard for the space for inspiration that fit with the values of the Ahura customer, and catered towards their aesthetics.

Because we’re catering towards young professionals, we gave the space an industrial feel, while simultaneously keeping it open, modern, and inclusive. We achieved this by selecting colors, materials, and finishes that make the space feel approachable. The use of satin oak floors make the space more warm and inviting, matte iron trim is used around the building, and the use of glass helps make the space as open as possible.

In our exhibit, we emphasize the journey of the user from beginning, during, and after the ride through the different floors. The user is able to have an accessible and personalized biking experience, and transition to every point of the journey seamlessly.

Rendering by Rebekah Hilton

We created a user journey to tell the story of how a user would flow through the space. The red arrow depicts how the user would move through each floor.

Rendering by Mary McGreggor

FLOOR 1

The first floor is a space where we introduce our bike and brand.

FLOOR 2

The second floor is a space for our users to interact with the bike.

Rendering by Mary McGreggor

Bike stand by Mohammad Soudachi

Rendering by Mary McGreggor

The user interface for the touchscreen displays directions for the ride, the chosen route of the user, the map while on the ride, and overall stats when the journey is over.

Each screen on the iPad user interface mirrors the touchscreen, except for the tap here to end ride screen. This is so the user is able to leave in the middle of a ride if they choose to do so, without having to get off of the bike.

The shelving display showcases different features of the bike.

Shelving display and rendering by Mary McGreggor

FLOOR 3

The third floor is a patio and rooftop bar area, showcasing the Ahura lifestyle.

We picture our exhibit in an urban nature area in an up and coming city like a park or nature trail. We chose this location because it reflects the roots of our brand (inspired by nature) and caters to our young professional persona.

The Ahura Pop-Up Exhibit takes the user along their biking journey and seamlessly integrates the Ahura lifestyle into every space created.

Rendering by Rebekah Hilton