The Quest for Wind Speed | Accelerated Branding

Used by permission. ©Daniel Forster [view more of Daniel’s photography]
Skipper Dennis Conner and America’s Cup teammates
with the GIRVIN logo for “Stars & Stripes,” at Fremantle, AU.

In a half century of brand design development, in projects all over the world, the story becomes one of
thoughtful illustration—how to take the narrative of a team, a storied group of founding inventors, originators and innovators
and literally drawing a line—crafting a sweep of graphical movement that, unforgettably, captures the spirit of the entire enterprise.
With staying power, it lasts in the minds of beholders forever.

Being a sailor—in my younger years, then a crew member on racing sloops in college, and still sailing yearly on Lake Coeur D’Alene, Idaho,
I find the exhilaration of running with the wind to be a kind of mysterious, if not alchemical, science.
Ancient and varied in wind-riding configurations around the world—it ranges from the understandable
“wind at your back” that pushes you forward, like walking in
the wind, to other forms of wind-riven movement,
you can learn more about the types of sailing here.

It’s a complexly-arrayed set of sensorial evaluations: the direction of the winds,
the fullness or laxity of mainsails, jibs and spinnakers and a detailed set of ratcheted
tighteners and halyard lines to control the taut efficiency of grasping the winds.

As a constant, in-motion art, you’re running to the wind, diagonally, and in the staging of the mast, the arc of the sails gathers up the wind,
and, in shifting the boom, to varying heights to the deck, and indices to the boat’s route, the wind, the types of sails—their loose or
taut halyards—your sailboat can run against the wind, arc and curl towards propulsion, angle leeward and heeling to reduce its mass in the water—
and to rip along, as noted below, crewmenbers dangling to offset the weight and maximize the efficiency of speed.

Racing becomes another modeling—it’s complexly-timed, metered reaches, buoyed milestones and capturing and controlling the wind [yours and your competitor’s;] it’s tense, it’s fast, it’s fraught with risk and adventure—like collisions and sideswipes. Currents can afflict an efficient side to side heeling run to a sliding close-aligned into another vessel, especially if they lose their wind, to your sails.

In elementary school, high school and college, I raced Lightnings throughout the Pacific Northwest with my Dad. I don’t believe we ever won anything at these events, and I’m not sure that my Dad really knew anything about racing—but we were out there.
Once, wee capsized in a keeling with a rogue wind in a storm-cast lake. My brothers and I were hiked-out, but lo and behold, up, over, and higher we rose, the mast rapidly tilting towards the water– and then the water was ripping along, sloshing-in over the gunwales, and we were sunk, mast flat, ice-cold water and the boys flopping on the sails like flipped fish.

Sounds romantic, but it was rather harrowing—and truly unforgettable.
For memory, as an example, that was 60 years ago.
Being the eldest, my job was to get my brothers out of the water, off the submerged sails, onto the upper hull, topside.
Bitter cold, windy and wave-riven.
Such is adventure.

Those early tourneys taught me a lot about grace under pressure—command responsive
in wild conditions, quick action under pressure in an incessantly swaying environment and
on-deck, slippery deployment of large objects—sails, spars, booms—with mast-work,
rope-lashing and blockers—all while briskly under-sail.

Used by permission ©Phil Uhl, [see more of Phil’s work]
And GIRVIN’s logo for Roger Livingston’s racing sloop “Lobo,” The Brenton Reef Series and US Admiral’s Cup.

Branding is about capturing and reflecting the spirit of the enterprise—
in messaging and visualizations—and, from my early days as a sign-writer, painting boat logos
on fiberglass shells, in the water, in a small rowboat—there, bobbing while I stroked
the lettering of my designs. That’s getting into it, right into the spirit of the action.
Then, later as crew member, watching that logo glide as a animation in
action—in play, out there, telling a story to the wide-open sea and the wave-rolling world.

Tim | Osean Studios
Come. Co-create. Collaborate. Connect.
GIRVIN | Strategic Brands
Design for Hollywood | GIRVIN Digital
Destination Brands | Wellness
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
We build brand projects. Since 1973.

Follow Us:
Facebook LinkedIn Instagram Behance