Shared micromobility operator HumanForest has undertaken a brand refresh by streamlining its name to ‘Forest’.
The purpose of the rebrand is to reconnect the bike and its riders to its primary source of inspiration, a tree.
The rebrand spans both the company’s physical and digital touchpoints, and comes with a more concise logo and distinctive brown tyres for the Forest bike.
Zag spoke with Forest’s Head of Design Joe Rampley who said the idea partly stemmed from their customers.
“Our users had already shortened our name for us,” he said.
“The connection between our dark green bikes and the word ‘forest’, which was already in our name, meant that 72% dropped the ‘human’ when referring to us. It felt only natural to sway towards a singular idea. A bike that resembled a tree. A group of them makes a forest.”
There are many companies with short names in the micromobility industry – Zipp, Zeus, Dott, Tier and Voi to name just a few.
Zag asked Rampley why short names are so important when choosing a new micromobility mode of transport.
“Naturally, shorter names suggest a more simple overall experience.
“We believe micromobility users want a straightforward experience. That clarity goes beyond the cycling aspect of the journey, into other areas such as interactions with the app, finding and parking a bike. This all aggregates to build a customer perception of the brand. When a user approaches a bike on the street they have an easy entry point into understanding, and then trusting, that brand.”
The rebrand comes as the company also announces that it has doubled its e-bike fleet size. Forest has also increased the size of its operating zone in London by 100% since May 2022.
These milestones have been helped by the company recently securing £12m in Series A funding.
