LiveHeats
UX
branding
Context
LiveHeats is an online scoring platform built for action sports competitions. It was founded by Chris Friend, a former professional surfer from Australia, who launched the product out of frustration with the disorganised and opaque scoring systems he encountered during his competitive career.
Traditionally, action sports competitions involved physical scorekeeping scribbled notes on paper and scores taped to walls. LiveHeats digitized and streamlined this process, providing a platform that allowed athletes to register for events, track scores in real time, and view their performance history. Originally focused on surfing, the platform has since expanded to support multiple sports including skateboarding, sailing, BMX, and snow sports becoming a go-to solution across the global action sports ecosystem.
Challenge
Despite its strong functionality and expanding user base, the LiveHeats brand and user interface had become dated, inconsistent, and misaligned with its core audience. The product looked more like a utilitarian spreadsheet than a platform for surf and skate athletes. The UI was clunky, and the visual identity lacked the energy and personality synonymous with the action sports world.
The branding didn’t reflect the culture or excitement of competitions whether for grassroots events or elite international tournaments. LiveHeats needed a brand and design system that spoke to everyone from groms to pros, while unifying the experience across sports and age groups.
Outcome
We led a full rebrand and UI design overhaul for LiveHeats. This included:
Brand Strategy: We crafted a positioning that spoke to the universal appeal of the platform from local comps to global stages anchored in the idea that every competition should feel “big league”. This led to the core brand idea: Make History a nod to the pivotal role LiveHeats plays in capturing competitive milestones and personal bests.
Visual Identity:
A new logo built around a dynamic flame icon, symbolizing heat, competition, and momentum. A bold new colour palette featuring neon yellow, black, bright orange, and grey to reflect the energy and vibrancy of the action sports community.
A custom typographic system designed for clarity and impact across digital interfaces and event signage.
UI & Design System:
We developed a comprehensive UI style sheet, aligning components with the new visual language. We created new UI elements that brought the identity to life leveraging brand colours and bold layouts to highlight scores, leaderboards, and athlete stats.
Introduced modular design patterns and visual compositions that balanced functionality with attitude designed to appeal across the spectrum of sports and demographics.
Art Direction:
Drawing inspiration from early 90s surf and skate culture, we fused nostalgic visual cues with a modern design aesthetic, ensuring the platform felt current and resonated with both younger athletes and legacy fans of the sports.
Following the rebrand, LiveHeats successfully rolled out the new identity and UI. The transformation was met with overwhelmingly positive feedback from users and stakeholders. Most notably, the company has since gone on to raise over $1.5 million in funding, helping to accelerate their product development and expansion into new sports and markets.
