Responses by Lyam Bewry, design director, Mucho.
Background: We were tasked with rebranding Big C Charters, a chartered boat service in the San Francisco Bay Area that offers hands-on fishing trips and excursions. Its clientele ranges from experienced fishing locals to first-time groups looking for a fun experience on the water. The work needed to appeal to this wide-ranging audience and pull together the different boats and trips that Big C Charters offers.
Design thinking: Founder Christian Cavanaugh, a six-foot-eight-inch former professional basketball player, has built an excellent local reputation for his fishing trips. With his image and the brand name Big C Charters, we knew a rebrand that leveraged being “incredibly tall” would be memorable and undoubtedly appropriate. This led us to an ultra-tall, custom display typeface that incorporates hook terminals, an antiquated typographic detail we found in early sans serif lettering.
Challenges: A lot of work goes into creating a typeface from scratch. The most challenging aspect was either that or sea sickness.
New lessons: This business sector is fascinating. For the project, we had to get up to speed on all the details of being on the water in the Bay Area, including the particular species of fish and wildlife you’ll find and the exact equipment used onboard.
Visual influences: We intentionally avoided ocean-like blues since this sector is heavily saturated with this color palette. Instead, we picked up on the vibrant pops of color you find onboard Big C Charters’s boats, such as hi-vis yellow garments and bright orange buoys.
Time constraints: We developed the custom typeface at the same time as the brand. While challenging at times, this process meant we were able to beta test the typeface to see what worked and didn’t work, as well as anticipate other useful glyphs and alternative letters.
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