An e-bike brand built for commuters, not weekend athletes
Identity, e-commerce and a launch campaign for a direct-to-consumer electric bike designed for everyday city riders.
- Client
- Volta Cycles
- Industry
- Mobility
- Year
- 2024
- Timeline
- 5 months
The challenge
Volta had a beautifully engineered bike and a crowded market full of brands selling speed, mountains and lycra. Their customers were different: people swapping a second car or a packed train for a twenty-minute ride to work. With a single model and a modest launch budget, every touchpoint had to work hard, from the frame decals to the checkout.
Our approach
We positioned Volta as the sensible choice that happens to be thrilling. The identity borrows from transit signage: a bold condensed wordmark, a palette taken straight from the bike's cream frame and leather grips, and a system of route-line graphics that runs from the frame to the packaging. The online store leads with a commute calculator that shows visitors how much time and money they would save on their own route, and the launch campaign put real commuters, not models, on posters across three cities.
Visual system
The palette.
The core colours of the identity, carried across every touchpoint from the first sketch to the final launch.
- 01 Primary#151515
- 02 Secondary#EDE6D6
- 03 Accent#B07A4F
Results
What changed.
- to sell out the first production run
- 19 days
- online store conversion rate
- 3.1%
- commutes calculated in launch month
- 27k
The outcome
The first production run sold out in nineteen days. The commute calculator became the most shared page on the site, and the route-line system now extends to Volta's retail partners and service vans.
In their words
Tessera understood our riders better than we did. The commute calculator alone paid for the project in its first month.
