RAND Boats is a Danish manufacturer of sustainable luxury motorboats.
They wanted a visual identity and branding solution representing their focus on high quality, innovation, aesthetics, sustainability and authenticity.
Client
RAND Boats
My Role
From July 2015 I functioned as the in-house graphic designer at RAND Boats. In mid-2016 I made it a project for my final exam at Copenhagen School of Design and Technology together with my fellow student, Lars Folkman. I was primarily on the visual and analytical part of the project, and Lars was mostly on the technical part. I stayed in this position up until February 2017 and developed visual material for later boat models as well.
The Challenge
Create an international, exclusive and sustainable boat brand from scratch
When RAND Boats was founded, they entered a difficult boat market, marked by the financial crisis. However, sailing had gained a new momentum, as consumers seek authentic experiences as a result of the technological development’s digitalisation of our everyday lives.
“The boat market is an unmanageable and difficult market to survive in. I do not think there are many other industries where it is so difficult to make money.”
Source: Founder Carl Kai Rand, Interview 13.11.2015
RAND Boats wanted a marketing strategy to enter the Danish B2C market with their first two boat models – RAND Picnic and RAND Picnic Sport. They wanted a visual identity and branding solution representing their focus on high quality, innovation, aesthetics, sustainability and authenticity.
The Analysis
What is the identity of RAND Boats?
RAND Boats was a newly founded startup, when I joined, so the culture and values of the company was naturally defined by the small organisation type, as well as by the founder, Carl Kai Rand, and his vision for the company. To learn about the values of the company, Lars and I studied Carl’s history and background, and we conducted an interview with him and his business developer. These are the main values that we found.
Togetherness, comfort and unique experiences
The image material will show people sharing quality time, and the comfortable design will be demonstrated. ‘Togetherness’ at RAND Boats also means ‘for the many’ – therefore RAND Boats must be available in the linguistic style, and maritime terms such as knots will be translated to km/h.
Innovation and modernity
Modern technology made it possible to make RAND Picnic and RAND Picnic Sport sustainable and functional to modern lifestyle. The innovative should be communicated through language and hand-drawn drawings, and modern lifestyle will be represented by the type of people in the image material.
Reliability and quality
There is a skilled designer behind RAND Boats, and his architectural background will be illustrated through line drawings. In addition, the focus on good craftsmanship will be shown through close-ups in the image material.
Nordic simplicity
The visual style is simple, and no more colours and elements are used than necessary to get the message across. The Nordic cold is evident in the color palette and the color tone of the image material, which is cold and contrasting.
Maritime culture and respect for nature
In addition to RAND Boats’ overall sustainable approach, freedom and nature will be represented through breathtaking nature images. Shades of blue and elements from the sea will be repeated in the visual identity.
“RAND Boats stands for ‘The Scandinavian Spirit’. It covers our approach to ‘life’ purely philosophically, but it channels itself into the respectfulness of our surroundings. […] We must be good at portraying ‘the frugal’ as the exclusive.”
Source: Founder Carl Kai Rand, Interview 13.11.2015
The Discovery
The lifestyle market and consumer insights
The general lifestyle market showed to be relevant. Carl Kai Rand learned that there is great interest among consumers who do not necessarily have experience with boats, as he got many more leads at a lifestyle fair than a boat fair.
“We see contradictory consumer trends, where the desire for luxury and here-and-now satisfaction works side by side with us paying homage to frugality, sharing economy and the imperfect.”
Source: Nørgård Mikkelsen, NorMik.dk
After conducting market and consumer research, these are some of the insights about the target group that defined the final solution.
Seeks authentic leisure and social time
Wants to buy differently
Values Scandinavian design
Prioritises quality and luxury
Environmentally conscious
The Solution
Introducing RAND Boats
The branding solution for RAND Boats includes the visual identity, website, print material and footage, all of which are part of the overall communication strategy.
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