Ian and I first worked together in 2016 when I created the original Bullshift brand. Then life happened for both of us… and seven years later he was back.
This time the brief was significantly bigger. Two new motorcycle products, SOLESHFTR and BULLSHFTR, needed everything from scratch. Brand identity, packaging R&D, photography, videography, drone footage, social assets, motion graphics and a Shopify store. I handled all of it, bar the social media management.
Oh, and I donated my own motorbike for the shoot. Dedication. 😄
Together we’ve accomplished:
- Product branding
- R&D for cost effective product packaging
- Paid and organic social assets
- Social page branding
- Shopify store
- Studio and on location photography, videography, editing plus motion graphics
- Many hours of humour and bike talk – very important!
JUMP TO SECTIONS
What role have I played in this project? I work directly with the founder and handle all the creative you see in this project (and beyond) plus all the print purchasing via my print partner. I even flew the drone and donated a motorbike for the photos.
Product Logos
SOLESHFTR and BULLSHFTR are products under the parent BULLSHIFT brand created back in 2016. The product logos needed to feel like siblings of the original, distinct enough to stand alone but unmistakably part of the same family. Both were also turned into logo stings using motion graphics.
The SOLESHFTR is an attachment for motorcycle boots, made for riders of dirt and adventure bikes. It drastically cuts the movement your leg and knee need to make, which helps combat fatigue on long rides and lets you shift quicker when you need to react fast. It’s 3D printed in an extremely tough thermoplastic polymer, with aluminium options.
The BULLSHFTR replaces the gear peg on a motorcycle and is aimed at cruisers and adventure bikes. It reduces the movement needed to change gear, so riding hundreds of miles a day is a breeze, and it helps you shift quicker too. It can also help riders with smaller feet, or injuries that make shifting difficult. It started out 3D printed in the same tough thermoplastic polymer, but it’s now aluminium.
R&D before a single pixel was designed
Before I could design anything, we needed to figure out what we were designing on. Armed with card, a ruler, pencil, scissors and a scalpel, I made various box and tube prototypes of different sizes and sent a few for printing including some with Spot UV finishes.
We landed on recyclable semi-transparent doypacks, perfect for the lightweight products and great for shipping. The SOLESHFTR slips into the doypack, slides into a matt metallic red mailer with a sticker and a hand-signed flyer. It’s the opposite of a plain cheapo white Amazon box and that’s entirely the point. Ian spent years perfecting this product, so the packaging had to reflect that.
Organic & Paid Social assets
Static and video content across Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, all delivered in 4:5 and 1:1 for feed, 9:16 for Stories and Reels. Every Reel has a cover image so the grid stays tidy and gives a teaser of what’s inside. Instagram aesthetics matter, even for motorcycle accessories.
Video content creation
This was a grassroots project so I handled the videography too… installation videos, explanation videos and short-form social content. Captured on a DSLR, iPhone and DJI Drone, with audio recorded separately, edited in Premiere Pro and After Effects. Every YouTube video has a custom thumbnail because a polished thumbnail is the difference between a click and a scroll past.
Product Photography
Small, black products on the side of a boot. Not the easiest photography brief. We went for a mix of clean white studio shots to show the product clearly, plus grittier garage and in-use shots to show it in its natural habitat.
bringing it all together
After months of branding, photography, videography and content, everything needed a home. So I built the Shopify store: product pages, imagery, the lot. It looks like a brand, not a side hustle.
Liv produced all of my initial corporate branding, I was so very pleased with those results, when my products were fully developed and market ready, it was an easy decision to engage her to complete the branding of the products also.
I know how I want my products to be seen by my customers and to me, visualising that is less than straight forward. However, when I met with Liv, she fully understood grasping those idea and, developing them into a reality I had imagined, I wanted something I can be proud of, I believe they developed my perfect outcome.
I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Liv to anyone, I look forward to working with her in the future as my business develops.
– Ian Blakeman, Managing Director, Bullshift Sales Limited
A couple of parting shots from the drone. A different perspective is always nice 🙂
