Classified
A new drivetrain, and a new way of explaining it
Client
Classified
Role
Strategy, proposition, creative direction, website UX and design
Team
Led a senior designer and a middleweight designer
Year
2022–24
Studio
Conductor
Classified is a deep-tech company with one ambition: to change how cyclists in every discipline think about the drivetrain. For decades two or three brands have owned it. Classified’s Powershift hub moves the technology on, and it’s backed by leaders in the industry and icons of the sport. A product that new has to be understood before it can be sold. We worked with the Classified team to evolve the brand and its messaging across digital, packaging, print, events and campaigns, and I led the thinking behind the website that explains it.
Shift Your Thinking. The proposition is an invitation to cyclists, and to the industry, to look again. Things may be done a certain way now, but is it the best way? It sets the tone for every piece of communication, and it pushes the Classified team too: the brand has to be as forward-thinking as the product.
Three principles guide everything. Create intrigue: give people a reason to find out more. Be dynamic: clean and minimal never means boring, so typography, layout, image and message do the work. No excess: strip out anything that doesn’t make the cyclist’s life simpler.
Classified needed a site that could explain a radically new technology in plain terms, connect with cyclists emotionally, and serve the brands, dealers and distributors who sell it. We split it by riding discipline, so every cyclist finds their product first, and turned Powershift into a step-by-step manifesto, with clean visuals, motion and modular explanations.
A bold platform that balances cutting-edge engineering with clean, rider-first UX: clear, fast and confidently minimal, like the drivetrain it represents.
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