Over the last several years, we’ve been lucky to have Peloton as one of our primary clients. Over the course of the ongoing partnership, we have served as an embedded team member of their UX and Brand Design teams in developing their audio brand strategy and audio ux ecosystem that spans their entire product line (Bike, Tread, Rower and Guide), gaming platform (Lanebreak) and sound logo for marketing across TV and digital platforms.

After our initial discovery phase, we began our design phase by focussing on the Startup sound that would be used across all products and also as a sound logo for marketing use. The startup sound was the foundational element that we crafted different concepts of how Peloton’s design principles could come to life while also exploring the sound of exertion that is an integral part of the workout experience. We also wanted to explore using sounds recorded from the product in our designs in a tasteful way that builds a direct line back to the flagship product that put Peloton on the map.

Working alongside the ux and brand team, we decided to focus our efforts into communicating four core design principles that guided us to design a holistic system spanning product, marketing and gaming while remaining flexible for each intended touchpoint. We initially set our focus on designing for Guide which was Peloton’s newest TV connected device. This set a strong foundation for the audio ux language could then be adapted to other products.

Once we finalized design for Guide, we pivoted to Rower, Tread and Bike. Seeing that the core brand and ux language was established, it became a smooth and easy task of finding areas where we could reuse, or modify, existing design to fit in the right context of different interactions for different devices. This allowed us to maintain a holistic design system that had enough flexibility for its intended device and exercise context.

As we were wrapping up the audio ux for Peloton, they pulled us into working with them on their new foray into gaming on Bike and Tread.  We worked alongside Peloton’s ux team and their extended gaming partner to create the menu music, menu ux and in game sound design for Lanebreak that helped to bring the game to life.

More in depth case study of Lanebreak in the Work section of our site.

The approach of creating sound for gaming is typically very different from creating brand or ux sound, but we saw this as an opportunity to extend the Peloton brand palette and add a bit more color and dynamics to engage the players of Lanebreak. Menu music was designed to get the player into a more focussed headspace before joining their workout.  Audio UX uses the foundational palette as all Peloton ux while adding some texture and reactivity for exciting moments like starting a game. The in game sound design is where we took a departure to really support game play with something rich and ethereal supporting the futuristic, space like environment.