RBL Brand Agency: World Sailing

Sailing is a global sport, loved the world over for the unique combination of competitive action, advanced technology and the sheer power and beauty of nature. In an effort to differentiate the sport from competitors, and provide a new focus to World Sailing and it’s members, we’ve helped the organisation bring these unique qualities to life as a powerful new positioning: sport, nature and technology in perfect harmony. We then expressed this new positioning through an impactful identity, bolder colour palette, more accessible typography, powerful photography and the use of dynamic graphic shapes. The colour palette consists of three primary colours: navy, representing the sport’s rich heritage; aqua, depicting the cool, calming nature of an idealised crystal sea; and magenta, which represents the hot, turbulent energy of the sport. The reworked World Sailing typography includes soft edges, which mirrors the curved shape of our sail motif, making the font friendly and welcoming, while the harder overall structure of the font maintains the gravitas required for an organisation of their stature. We wanted to balance the power and drama of nature with the raw emotion and effort in racing through photography that put the viewer in the heart of the action. Everything is brought together using a range of graphic elements, which are derived from the logo mark, resembling ‘sails’ and ‘sheets’. These provide a way to bring movement and energy to all communications materials, and create a brand that is recognisable even when the logo isn’t present. Finally, we helped World Sailing communicate their identity across 17 sub brands used by over 250 stakeholder organisations each with their own distinct needs and messaging but all firmly a part of the new energised World Sailing family.