10 Editions of Sports Event Branding & Creative Direction - Lion Heart Ultra
Most studios design for events.
We designed this one, ran it alongside
the team for 13 hours straight on race day
and helped revive a sport in the process.
We have been the embedded creative and operational team behind Lion Heart Ultra - one of Bulgaria’s most demanding sporting events. Between us, we have shaped every visual, physical, and experiential touchpoint of the race. In the first edition, Ivena contributed to the logo concept and medal illustration as a volunteer, alongside Todor.
From edition two, we took on the full creative direction, and the result is a nationally recognised sporting institution that has revived triathlon in Bulgaria, formed new sports clubs, established Primorsko as a sports destination, extended the local tourist season, and sent athletes to Ironman start lines across Europe. All this because of a brand that began as a tattoo and ended up on the summit of Everest. This led to the creation of a second race, Lion Heart Utopia, the first Olympic cross triathlon in the country.
“Their project management is great…They respond on time and deliver tasks within strict timelines. They respond to our needs with creativity, respect, and hard work.”
★★★★★ 5.0 Verified on Clutch · Gergana Daneva, Chairwoman, Lion Heart · February 2025 · 5.0 /5.0 across all categories
01 - THE BRIEF
The mandate was
never just visual.
Cosmonavt was engaged for sports event branding and creative direction to accomplish three things: build a community of like-minded athletes, position Lion Heart Ultra as Bulgaria’s premier cross-triathlon, and establish Primorsko and the Strandzha Mountains as the logical choice for sport at the seaside.
That third objective is a destination-branding and regional-development brief. The summer season in Primorsko traditionally ends in late August. Lion Heart Ultra takes place at the tail end of that season - and extends it. Athletes arrive with families and friends who stay to explore the region: the Strandzha Mountains, the ancient Thracian sanctuary of Begliktash, the hidden beach of St. Anastasia. Local businesses generate income in weeks that would otherwise mark the end of the season - by our rough estimate, roughly €1.42M in cumulative local economic impact across ten editions for both races (2016–2025). The region gains visibility and exposure to a new customer segment, it would not otherwise have - athletes.
This relationship has always operated beyond a conventional brief. For four years, Ivena led the athlete registration operation on the ground - managing a team of up to 15 people to process and verify the documents of 800+ athletes per edition. Todor DJ-ed and MC-ed the full 13 hours of race day, live, from the first swim start to the last finisher crossing the line. The studio also managed sponsor branding placement across all event touchpoints.
Lion Heart Ultra Start, 2016, photo: personal archive, Todor Hlebarov
Lion Heart Ultra Start, 2024, photo: Krisok Photography
The Lion Heart Ultra medal in 2016 and in 2025. Illustration for 2016 medal by Ivena Hlebarova, medal for 2025 - designed by Todor Hlebarov.
The Lion Heart Ultra Bib (race number) in 2016 and in 2025 - designed by Todor.
We didn’t just design for the event. For 15 editions, we helped run it.
02 - THE ORIGIN
Tattoo → Logo → Brand System → Tattoo →Everest
The Lion Heart logo began as a tattoo.
During brand research, Ivena found a tattoo design that captured exactly what the race needed to feel - raw, powerful, unforgettable. The original mark was developed from that reference by Stoyan Georgiev. Over the years, Todor took it further - cleaning it up, refining the lines, and building it into a logo system precise enough to work at every scale, from a race bib to vehicles to a 3-metre stage backdrop.
Years later, athletes began tattooing it back onto their bodies.
That's what a brand becomes when it means something - and when the craft behind it is good enough to carry the weight.
In 2025, a medic from the Lion Heart community became the 4th Bulgarian woman to summit Everest - and the first to do so via the Northern Pass. Among her first photos at the top was one with the Lion Heart t-shirt, taken right after the Bulgarian flag. Not a paid sponsorship. Just something she wanted to carry to the top of the world. That's the furthest the brand has ever travelled. At least for now.
03 - THE IDENTITY
Two events. Two identities.
One brand system.
The Lion Heart triathlon branding has had to evolve into a coherent brand system to adapt to different mediums and has faced many production challenges. Over ten editions, the core mark has remained constant while the surrounding identity - secondary logos, colours and graphic elements - has shifted to reflect each year’s theme, the race’s growth and new merchandise.
As the event expanded, so did the brand system. Todor designed the Lion Heart Utopia logo - the visual identity for the second event, an Olympic-distance race held near Burgas. The Utopia identity needed to coexist within the same brand family without competing with it.
In 2025, for the 10th anniversary edition, a new geometric mark was created by Ivena: a clean, bold ‘10’ that reflects the race’s legacy and continued ambition. Applied across all materials - from the start arch to the swimming caps - it functions as both a milestone and a signal that the brand is still growing.
04 - THE COLLECTION
From an annual T-shirt to
a complete apparel system.
What started as an annual T-shirt became the Lion Heart sports collection - and eventually, a complete apparel system for every person on the course.
Over ten editions, we proposed the approach and designed the full range of Lion Heart race merchandise. Ivena designed each t-shirt annually based on the theme for the year, and it was produced in three colourways: one for Ultra athletes, one for fans, and one for the team. Same design, three roles, differentiated by colour.
“Those who dared brave the full distance of “Lion Heart” - from a total of 140 km of swimming, biking and running, are called “ultra” athletes. These men and women are the elite that stands out from the others by their limited edition T-shirts”
Forbes Bulgaria
By altering the design every year, the collection builds a visual archive of the race’s evolution. Early editions have become collector’s items, recognised and sought after across the Bulgarian triathlon community.
Merchandise revenue has grown alongside
the collection by 41% from 2021 to 2024.
The T-shirt has become the main symbol of the community and has worked wonders for the visibility of the race due to its bold colours and eye-catching design, so that people who know nothing of the race also want to buy one for their sports collection.
The Ultra colours were always chosen deliberately - a signal of belonging to a group of roughly 200 athletes who earned entry by finishing one of the most demanding endurance courses in Bulgaria: 3 km open-sea swim, 96 km mountain bike, 21 km trail run.
The triathlon suit and windbreaker were both designed with visual elements drawn from Ivena's annual t-shirt designs - carrying the race's identity directly onto the athletes competing and training in them, across all conditions.
The medical team’s partnership with Lion Heart led us to design their t-shirts specifically for race conditions - high-visibility colours, clear role identification, instantly readable at a distance, in motion, and in low-visibility environments. When the design works, nobody notices it. When it’s needed, it’s already there.
Volunteers operate in colour-coded t-shirts, each colour corresponding to a specific function - team leads, aid stations, course marshalling, photographers, timing. A struggling athlete at kilometre 80 of the bike leg can immediately identify the right person without asking.
“... And let’s talk about the merch! The quality and design of the Lion Heart gear are top-notch. It’s not just something you wear once for the race - it’s a keepsake that I'll cherish.”
Boyan D., Athlete, Lion Heart, Racecheck.com
The triathlon suit
Worn across swim, bike, and run, while remaining visually consistent with the brand system.
The windbreaker
Like the triathlon suit, it was designed with elements from Ivena's annual t-shirt work, extending the collection's visual language into everyday wear.
The buff
One of the most recognisable pieces on course after the t-shirt - when people hiking in the mountains recognise each other by the buff around their neck, the brand stops being a logo and becomes a way of life.
05 - THE MEDAL
The object that makes Relay athletes
want to become Ultra athletes.
The Lion Heart medals were designed by Todor using custom 3D medal design - two for Lion Heart Ultra, two for Lion Heart Utopia. Each one was modelled, rendered, and production-ready created in Blender.
The Ultra medal for the 10th edition in 2025 is the most conceptually sophisticated piece in the collection. It splits into three separate medals - one for the swim, one for the bike, one for the run. Each discipline earns its own piece. Joined together, they form a single complete trophy for the ultimate achievement - finishing the whole race.
But the split is not just a design decision. It is a strategic one
Relay athletes - who each complete one discipline - receive one medal piece. Ultra athletes, who complete all three, receive all three. The same design system serves both categories. The difference is entirely in what you earn.
Three-part modular medal. Splits into swim piece, bike piece, run piece. Ultra athletes receive all three. Relay athletes receive one piece each corresponding to their discipline. Designed by Todor Hlebarov.
The effect is deliberate: a Relay athlete holding one piece of a three-part medal is looking at a reason to come back and do the whole course. The object itself becomes a recruitment tool for the Ultra category. A medal that challenges you to become more and push your limits further.
The Utopia medals follow the same standard of craft - two metal medals for the Olympic-distance event, designed to sit within the same visual family as the Ultra pieces while carrying the character of Lion Heart Utopia.
Lion Heart Utopia medal, 2025, designed by Todor Hlebarov
06 - NINE EDITIONS OF EVENT DESIGN
The branding doesn’t represent
the event. It is the event.
For every edition, we designed the complete physical environment of Lion Heart Ultra and added improvements.
Signage that works at 40km/h on a mountain bike course through Strandzha Mountain. Transition zone markings that 1,000 athletes can navigate at 5 am. Partnership banners and sponsor integrations that serve each brand’s requirements without breaking the event’s visual coherence. Wayfinding that works outdoors, in heat, in rain, and under race conditions.
Sports event branding lives or dies in the physical environment.
Sponsor branding placement is managed across every touchpoint - ensuring every partner’s visual presence is correctly positioned, correctly sized, and correctly applied according to their sponsorship tier. From the stage to the finish arch to the printed materials, the commercial relationships of the event are represented with the same precision.
Lion Heart Base Camp in Primorsko, 2024; Photo: Alexander Valchev
Lion Heart Utopia Base Camp; Photo: Alexander Valchev
07 - THE ATHLETE EXPERIENCE
Good event design is the thing that
doesn’t cause a problem on race day.
The race bibs were redesigned from scratch - for aesthetics and for function. Athletes move through three disciplines in extreme conditions: open sea, mountain terrain, and trail. The bib needed to work at high speed on the bike and on a running vest without confusion, and the athletes' numbers needed to be visible during the swim so that the volunteers could track them. That is why we designed 3 solutions - 1 for each leg of the race, so that they are optimised to the unique challenge presented by the track - a temporary tattoo for the swim, a bib with a huge number for the bike and one with an elevation profile for the run.
For the bib, Todor restructured the information hierarchy, the attachment system, and the format so that it works at speed and under extreme physical stress.
Todor designed the athlete guide with the same principle - clear information architecture designed for people who need to find things fast. Registration details, race briefings, transition protocols, equipment needed for each stage, course maps, all structured so that nothing is missed and nothing causes anxiety on race morning.
For four consecutive years, Ivena managed the athlete registration operation at Lion Heart Base Camp - running a team of 8 to 15 people responsible for document verification and registration of over 800 athletes per edition. That means coordinating volunteers sometimes from different nationalities, managing queues under time pressure, resolving documentation issues on the spot, and ensuring that every athlete on the start list is correctly registered and cleared before the race begins. She also wrote SOPs and FAQs to prepare the team for the most demanding hours - from 18:00 until the pre-race technical briefing.
Partnership presentations and sponsor materials were developed to the same standard - professionally produced commercial collateral that reflects the quality of the event and makes the case for investment. We also worked with the team to devise their partnership tiers and contributed ideas tailored for each sponsor on multiple occasions, thus providing support for the business side of the race, not only the design.
“The race itself was very well organised. I’ve competed in some Challenge series triathlon races in Europe and can say that your organisation is equal or even better organised than the top-level races in central Europe.”
Wim Sterckx · Lion Heart Ultra winner, 2018
08 - SOUND & ATMOSPHERE
13 hours. Live.
Race day lasts 13 hours. For every one of them, Todor was present - DJing and MCing the full duration of the event, live, from the swim start on Perla Beach to the last finisher crossing the line in Primorsko.
His curated playlist lives on Spotify - athletes listen to it through the off-season. At the race Todor read the energy of the course in real time - building adrenaline at the start, sustaining drive through the long hot hours during the bike leg, shifting to quiet intensity as the trail runners came in, and crescendoing for the last finishers to help them in the last 800 m of the race.
He announced names, kept volunteers energised when the crowd had thinned and made sure the athlete who finished last felt as celebrated as the one who finished first.
For 13 hours, the sound of Lion Heart Ultra was a live performance - not a broadcast. That’s not something you brief a company to deliver. It’s something you do because you’re committed to the event succeeding in every dimension, not just the ones in the contract.
09 - PERSONALISATION AT SCALE
Personalised athlete video at scale -
500 finisher films, zero manual edits.
In 2024, we introduced a new layer of personalisation to Lion Heart Ultra.
Every finisher received a personalised highlight video - with moments from their race and their stats - delivered after the event. 500 videos with zero manual editing per video. It required a custom motion pipeline, automated production, individual distribution and quick adaptation to the challenges of a live race.
It marked a new era of storytelling for the event: proof of completion that athletes could share, keep, and return to and a new reason to feel that finishing Lion Heart is a feat of human endurance and perseverance.
Proof & performance
Regional & digital impact
Recognition
Golden Rose
National award for Tourist Event of Bulgaria — Ministry of Tourism.
Everest
The Lion Heart t-shirt carried to the summit by a community member.
Forbes Bulgaria
Ultra athletes recognised as “the elite that stands out.”
International reach
2017 race film premiered at the So Sport Film Festival with a New York screening; broadcast in 7+ countries incl. Peru, Russia, Thailand, Japan; also aired on BNT HD.
A sport revived
Widely credited within the community as the event that revived Bulgarian triathlon.
Ironman feeder
Used by athletes as a preparation race for Ironman-distance events.
A brand that extended a season
and helped revive a sport.
The summer season in Primorsko traditionally ends in late August. Lion Heart Ultra takes place at the tail end of that season - and extends it.
Athletes don’t come alone. They come with partners, families, and friends who travel to support them and stay to discover the region - and the region delivers: mystical mountains, ancient Thracian sanctuaries, natural reserves, and hidden beaches. A coastline that most visitors leave behind with the summer crowds - and that Lion Heart brings them back to when it’s at its quietest and most beautiful.
For local businesses - accommodation, restaurants, shops, guides - the race generates income in the weeks when the season would otherwise be ending. For the region, it demonstrates that Primorsko is not just a summer party destination, but it’s a great place for sports in September.
The impact is documented. An official report to the Primorsko municipality recorded visitor spending during race days growing from 39,000 BGN in 2016 to over 155,000 BGN by 2018, with hotel nights more than tripling in the same period. In 2018, the race won the “Golden Rose” award for Tourist Event of Bulgaria from the Ministry of Tourism, and the association’s work contributed to Beglik Tash being named Tourist Destination of the Year. Adidas Bulgaria built its international #TakeChargePrimorsko campaign around the race and brought its own corporate teams to compete.
The impact extends further. In the years since Lion Heart was established, at least two new triathlon clubs have formed in Bulgaria, a new triathlon association has been founded, and three new races have been launched by people who volunteered at Lion Heart. These are communities of athletes who found the sport through the race and committed to it long term.
Lion Heart is now recognised from the community as a preparation ground for Ironman-distance events, attracting athletes who use it as a stepping stone to one of the most demanding endurance formats in the world.
A sport that was fading now has a flagship event, a community, and a visual identity that people choose to carry permanently on their skin.
“They respond to our needs with creativity, respect, and hard work.”
★★★★★ 5.0 Verified on Clutch · Gergana Daneva, Chairwoman, Lion Heart · February 2025 · 5.0 /5.0 across all categories
CLOSING
Ten editions in, Lion Heart Ultra is a
synonym for triathlon in Bulgaria.
The brand lives on medals, t-shirts, sponsor banners, race bibs, athlete guides, volunteer uniforms, and on the skin of people who finished it. It has been carried to the summit of Everest. It has extended the tourist season in Primorsko, brought visitors to Begliktash and the hidden beach of St. Anastasia, and generated income for a region in the weeks when summer season ends.
It has been held together for 13 hours at a time by one half of our studio on a microphone - and administered, registered, and verified by the other, leading a team of up to 15 people to get 800+ athletes through registration and to the start line correctly and on time.
It has helped revive a sport. At least two triathlon clubs have formed in Bulgaria as a result of the community it built. Athletes use it to prepare for Ironman. A sport that was fading now has a flagship event, a community, and a visual identity that people choose to carry permanently.
Behind all of it: a two-person studio that designed, produced, performed, managed, and delivered - year after year, edition after edition, from the first sketch to the last finisher.
“Every year the Cosmonavt crew delivers an outstanding, timely and very artistic line of tasks - and sees the project through from concept creation to finishing off the physical installation onsite.
The quality of the work, its depth, and the overall cohesion between every design element are by far the greatest contributors to the success of the entire project. What you get in the end is not just great design. You get a product with a soul if you trust them
and leave them to it.”
Filip Shavov, Co-founder & Race Director - Lion Heart Ultra Cross Triathlon, April 2020
That’s what 15 editions of embedded creative partnership look like.
All creative work produced by Ivena Hlebarova and Todor Hlebarov for Lion Heart Ultra from edition two (2017) onwards has been created in their capacity as co-founders and managing directors of Cosmonavt Ltd., and all intellectual property rights arising from that work are owned by or licensed through Cosmonavt Ltd., unless otherwise agreed in writing.
