Wightlink and its forerunners have provided ferry services for more than 160 years, operating routes across The Solent between Hampshire and the Isle of Wight in southern England. The ferries carry over 4.5 million passengers on more than 45,000 crossings every year. They have a reputation for being punctual, reliable and speedy, with crossing times from just 22 minutes. Wightlink believe in a greener future and have launched a hybrid-energy flagship ferry and a host of environmentally friendly initiatives.
This rebrand was focused on Wightlink’s launch of Victoria of Wight, the first hybrid energy ferry in England, setting new standards for cross-Solent travel. She combines battery power with conventional engines to sail between Portsmouth and Fishbourne, using 17% less fuel than the next largest ship on the route, the St Clare.
Wightlink were keen to celebrate their green initiative with an adapted brand that would demonstrate their support for the environment and a greener future.
Lamerton Creative employed our customer-centric approach to brand development which involved working closely with the Wightlink team, getting under the skin of the repositioning brand and what the environmental message would mean to their customers. The result was that the brand imagery resonated with the audience and clients attracted to the purpose.
Our process included:
We created a brand-new livery for the new hybrid ferry and at the same time offered a new greener colourways to the long established Wightlink Ferry company. This aligned to the future environmentally friendly change and direction for the ferry company.
The idea behind the brand was to combine the renewables aspect of the ships power supply with the ocean itself. After various iterations of the concept of connection to the ocean, a simplified version was created by using strips of colour along the side of the ferry.
The design also considered how to make ferries that are historically white and high sided look more streamlined and flowing in design. This was achieved by the use of a wave design pattern that took up half the height of the ship, and a design graphic that flows so that the ship looks like it is cutting through the waves.
This design reduced the amount of white space so visually the ship appeared sleeker and more streamlined.
Bold bright and energetic colours were used to convey confidence with high visibility, making a bold statement on the busy Solent.
The Victoria of Wight rebrand made the greener future intensions of the company visible for everyone booking to travel, travelling on her, and passing by in other vessels to see.
The ferry itself has a majestic beauty being particularly well-designed according to the Portsmouth and Fishbourne route since the turn in and out of the ports are quite tight and manoeuvrability is extremely important. Consequently, the vessel has an asymmetrical design for the adjustment of the ports. Like the other vessels of Wightlink, Victoria of Wight has Voith Schneider propellers, which allows the control of the movement of the ship’s bow and stern with high operational reliability. Magnitude and direction of thrust can be set according to necessity and smoothly.
All this shipbuilding design works perfectly with the new brand imagery which brought the environmental focus of Wightlink to the eyes of customers and passers-by in ports and at sea.