MIND MAINTENANCE CONTEST- WIN A BIKE
In the spring of 2020, Jill teamed up with her sponsors and artist Made Rad by Tony to develop a series of art and creativity contests promoting positive mental health in the wake of the pandemic. With Jill’s talent for design and illustration, she created templates with blank spaces for people to fill in and submit on social media. The response was huge with people all over the world enjoying these free downloadable templates. By week 5, people had the rhythm and absolutely threw down for a chance to win the grand prize of a Made Rad by Tony custom-painted new Norco Sight with their own design!!
https://www.redbull.com/us-en/projects/jill-kintner-mind-maintenance
SO ABOUT THAT HORNET BIKE…….
JILL QUESTIONS
How many entries did you get for the competition?
In the end, we had over 5000 downloads for Mind Maintenance, which was unbelievable to see so many people engaging and taking part!! I had no idea if this contest would even work, so it made me happy that people were into it, and had fun filling in the templates!
What stood out about Zac's design?
The minute we saw Zac's hornet bike, it was intriguing; A bold graphic, super well thought out as a 360 design, and the elements from the wings and eyes had so much potential in paint. Tony was excited to create this bike, and his enthusiasm for the project helped it rise to the top. We all agreed it was a killer design, from all angles, and needed to be "Made Rad"!
Were there other designs that stood out as well ?
Oh yeah, dozens of designs would have looked stunning painted on the Norco Sight. It's a shame we had to pick just one. Judging was beyond difficult with so many great concepts. Isaac Orloff's dart frog was a close contender again for the boldness, textures, and vibrant colors. The broken TV bike was fantastic; the Robot bike had a fun personality, the watercolor "dirt church" stained glass bike was beautiful, the treasure map bike was full of surprises, and and and…They were all uniquely special.
Are you happy with how the competition ran?
Yes, I was so happy with the effort from everyone!! Bringing this beast of a contest to life was a team endeavor and took several weeks of planning and a lot of learning on my end. HIUGE thanks to Red Bull, Norco, Made Rad By Tony, Groundkeeper, and Headspace for supporting the idea and being the best partners. I wish we could have hosted a worldwide contest, but legally it's just extremely challenging to do so with different rules for every single country. I was glad to see people overseas still participate and have fun because every entry made it better. I gave away quite a few bonus prizes regardless of rules anyway, yay Groundkeeper:)!! Thank you to all who entered. The variety and energy were incredible!
Collaborating with Tony and bringing my sponsors together to give back to our community was an honor. I am glad we pulled it all off!! Buzzing 🐝 to unleash Mind Maintenance 2.0 soon for some new challenges!!
Will you be doing more to help riders with their mental health in the future?
Yes. I know there are many angles to take on mental health, and the past year has been unsettling in a million different ways. My approach to this contest was to give people a creative outlet through art. Doing quiet little activities like drawing, coloring, sculpting, putting a puzzle together, etc always helps me process my feelings and get expressions or ideas out of my head and on paper. The simple act of moving a pen to create something makes me feel better, so I wanted to share this therapeutic strategy with others to jumpstart their imagination, lower anxiety, and connect in a fun way with people who share a similar passion for bikes and the arts.
ZAC QUESTIONS
What inspired your design?
The hornet bike idea came from wanting to do an original design that would stand out. I knew Tony could make any design come to life, and he really outdid himself with this one!
How did it feel when you were picked as the winner?
Words can not describe how stoked I am. This is the sickest bike ever! I feel like the luckiest kid ever!! Massive thank you to everyone who made this contest possible!!
What’s your favorite part of the finished bike?
The paint. Tony put an incredible amount of care into every detail, and it shows. This is a masterpiece on wheels. The best part is... I get to keep it?
How did it feel to show Jill around your new trails on your brand new bike?
It was an unreal experience I will never forget. Jill is an inspiration and a legend, on and off the bike. Getting to meet her was super cool. Jill, Bryn and Tony are awesome for taking the time to deliver the bike. Thank you Jill! for putting this contest together and everything you do for the mountain bike community!
-Zac M.
TONY QUESTIONS
How hard/easy it was to paint that bike?
I originally thought the head was going to be the most difficult so I didn’t really think too much about the rest. I spent some time and planned out how I was going to make it happen and played it over and over in my head so when it came time to actually do it, it went relatively smoothly. The wings, however, ended up being much more difficult than I anticipated and I spent way too much time on them. I was trying to keep it as close to Zac’s mock-up as possible, but the light blues and purples he used really didn’t jive well with the rest of the hornet. As a last-ditch effort, I decided to go rogue and I made the wings more of a fiery yellow/orange and hoped for the best. I think it was the right call and luckily Zac agreed.
What made it interesting for you?
Zac’s concept was one of my favorites from the very beginning. His whole idea was pretty dialed. The way he laid it all out, the colors he chose, and the amount of detail I knew I could work with really got me buzzing. In doing my research, I got really sucked into macro shots of hornets and fell into a deep rabbit hole when my search led me to a bunch of other macro bug photos. There are definitely some other really rad bug bikes just waiting to happen.
How was the handoff to Zac?
It was super cool and I’m so glad I could be there for it. I rarely get to personally hand off paint jobs so I never really get to see folks’ initial reaction. I can’t imagine the anticipation Zac had to go through. He kept it cool but he was clearly stoked. What an awesome thing to win and I am thankful to have been involved.