The Meridian Luxury Yachts project was created as an identity redesign project. The premise is that Meridian Yachts  was expanding from one shipyard outside Hilton Head, South Carolina and adding 5 new yards in 4 countries. The company wanted a more upscale look that would work to unify the company while also differentiating each branch. This evolved into a complete exploration of the identity system for this company.

I had conducted extensive research into the super-yacht building industry, to gain an understanding of the competition, the community of yacht owners, designers, brokers, and restorers. In order to properly design and define a company’s identity, to properly brand a company, it is vitally important to gain as much understanding as possible into the nature of the company and it’s clients and potential clients.

This is one thing that separates a true graphic design business from the McLogo companies that claim to offer a custom logo for your company for only $49. They say “you get what you pay for”, there are few businesses that this applies to more than graphic design.

It was determined that the differentiating factor that would be employed with respect to the six divisions of Meridian Luxury Yachts would be to tag the primary mark with the longitudinal (meridian) designation for each factory. The defining elements of the final mark include:

• the numerical meridian designator (26°n, 31°, 32°n – headquarters, 37°n, 41°s, and 56°n)
• the ‘arc’ element – representing the global span of the company, the adventurous nature of their products, the safe and dependable nature of the company and its products
• the divisional color designation – each color is representative of its home country
• the Meridian Luxury Yachts name.

There are also three primary layout formats for each of the six logos.

1. The horizontal signature, displays the divisions logo combined with the division name, the city the yard is located, and the latitude/longitude location of the factory.
2. The vertical signature, this displays the same information as the horizontal, but in a more compact vertical format.
3. The signature with no descriptive information.

A secondary graphic signature consists simply of the numerical designator on a field of the division color. This signature is often employed in discrete areas of the product as a signature of the master design yard that built the product.

In the process of creating a full branding and identity campaign for a company, a graphic standards manual is created. This document details and outlines all of the specifications and rules for the usage of the company signature, colors, fonts, tone and much more. It is important to have these areas clearly defined and adhered to, in order to build and maintain brand identity, especially across a global marketplace.

Other areas that are frequently defined in a standards manual are signage, environmental graphics applications (especially important in multi-lingual environments), wayfinding elements and design.

How the signature is to be applied to service vehicles, promotional items, and to the product itself are all areas that may be explored in the manual.

In today’s market, a global company needs a presence on the Internet. An elegantly designed website with logical and intuitive navigation combined with high quality professional photography goes a long way to guide potential clients to your company and lead them away from competitors.

Maintaining a uniform, consistant and professional appearance across multiple media platforms is important to the establishment of a strong brand.