The Brief

Vela came to us at an inflection point. A heritage sailing apparel brand with loyal customers and zero digital presence, they were preparing to launch their first e-commerce channel and knew their visual identity hadn’t kept pace with the quality of their product. The brief was clear: build a brand that feels as premium as a hand-stitched foul-weather jacket.

The Challenge

The existing brand leaned heavily on nautical clichés — anchors, rope textures, navy blue and gold. It communicated sailing but not luxury. Our task was to strip that back and find the genuine character underneath: performance, craft, and the quiet confidence of people who spend serious time on the water.

Our Approach

We began with a three-week discovery phase — spending time with the founding team, reviewing archival race photography, and mapping the competitive landscape from Arc’teryx to Musto. The insight that shaped everything: Vela’s customers don’t wear sailing gear to look like sailors. They wear it because it performs. That shifted our direction from nautical nostalgia to technical elegance.

Identity System

The logomark is a single, continuous line forming a sail under tension — minimal, geometric, unmistakably purposeful. It works at 8px on a hang tag and 8 metres on a race committee boat. We paired it with an extended type system built on a modified grotesque for headlines and a high-contrast serif for editorial contexts, giving the brand range across performance tags and lookbook spreads.

The colour system moved away from heritage navy entirely. We landed on an off-black we called Carbon, a warm off-white called Salt, and a single accent — a deep petrol blue that only appears as a spot colour on premium pieces. No gradients. No shadows. Every application feels considered.

Packaging

We redesigned the full packaging suite across four product categories. Boxes are single-colour lithograph on uncoated stock. Tissue is embossed with the logomark at 40% opacity. The swing tag is die-cut to the shape of the sail mark. Every touchpoint reinforces the same idea: nothing unnecessary.

Typography System

We documented the complete type system across seven scales — from micro labels on care instructions through to billboard-scale campaign type. Each scale has defined tracking, leading, and colour rules so the in-house team can extend the system without breaking it.

Outcome

Vela launched their e-commerce store four months after we began. Within the first quarter, average order value was 34% higher than their previous wholesale channel. The brand has since been featured in Monocle, Huck, and Boat International. The founding team described it simply: “It finally looks like what it is.”