26—02 / Product
A brand for engineering you're not supposed to notice.
WattAssist is the world's lightest and most discreet e-bike drive, developed by HPS in Monaco from Formula 1 engineering. The product's entire proposition is that you can't see it. That's an unusual brief for a visual identity.
Restraint as the point
Most performance engineering brands shout. Carbon fibre textures, aggressive angles, a lot of black and a lot of red. It's a well worn language and it says power without saying precision.
WattAssist is the opposite proposition. The engineering is extraordinary and almost invisible, tucked into a frame in a way most riders will never see. An identity built on shouting would have contradicted the product.
Formula 1 without the cliché
The technology's motorsport origin is genuinely part of the story, and the temptation was to lean on it visually. We took the discipline of that world rather than its decoration: tolerances, precision, nothing present that doesn't need to be.
The result balances subtlety against power, which is the same balance the product itself strikes.
Beyond identity
The work extended past the identity into UX, UI and development, so the brand held from the first impression through to the detail of the interface.
Something similar in mind?
Tell us what you're trying to change. If we're the right studio for it we'll say so, and if we're not we'll tell you that too.