Designing the Tall Ships Race Aberdeen 2025.
Bringing a prestigious cultural event brand to life across look & feel and wayfinding.
Over the past two years, I collaborated with Twelve 01 Events to deliver a bold vision for the Tall Ships Race Aberdeen 2025
We delivered an exciting look, across city dressing, venue design, community engagement, spectator experience, wayfinding and signage for an event that drawn over 400,000 people in one of Scotland's biggest free maritime festivals.
Concept & Modular Design
Working with an existing brand and inspired by Aberdeen’s maritime heritage, we developed a bold look and feel that combined classic nautical motifs with fresh, local storytelling. One key feature of the identity supplied to us were the characters made by local illustrators that explore diversity, Aberdeen landmarks, local personas, natural elements and, of course, the famous Tall Ships.
The modular identity gave prominence to the characters and humanised the look and feel of the event . It allowed seamless application across venue, city dressing, wayfinding & signage, preserving cohesion while adapting to diverse touchpoints.
The implementation of the Tall Ships Race
Turning the design into practical event solutions was at the core of this project. Ww created a Kit of Parts (KOP) to guide production, ensuring the brand rolled out seamlessly across look elements, wayfinding, and functional signage. Sailors, trainees, volunteers, and visitors could navigate the event clearly while experiencing a unified and striking visual experience.
This scalable design approach gave organisers a practical toolkit to implement across diverse environments: city dressing, event spaces and back of house.
Event and city dressing
We created a consistent look and feel for event spaces, entrances, festival areas, with banners, buntings, posters, flags, totems, stage design and bespoke activations across the city centre and Aberdeen Harbour.
Special Projects
We explored unique creative ways to activate the brand in event an city spaces, giving life and personality to the illustrated characters:
Transit Sheds: Bespoke painted decoration and signage, carrying the colours and stripes concept of the identity.
Mooring Buoys: There was an opportunity large buoys as brand activations across city look and event spaces. We developed a creative solution where we applied the illustrated characters as cut outs to give personality and instigate people’s curiosity.
Entrance Gantry: We created large structure with 7m high captain character that functioned as a landmark for the entrance of the event and offer a photo opportunity for event goers.
Public Information, Wayfinding and Functional Signage
We developed clear, accessible and consistent informational design systems to help visitors, staff, volunteers, and spectators navigate the event and discover more about the Tall Ships and crews that participated in the event.
Community Engagement
The Tall Ships Race is more the Ships, they are about local engagement.
To reflect this, I designed kits of collaterals for local communities and businesses. Bunting, posters, flags, and branded assets extended the celebration beyond the venues, transforming Aberdeen into a festival of Sailing, art, and community.
The impact & Legacy
The Tall Ships Race Aberdeen 2025 brand roll-out proved how strong design can elevate cultural events. It gave organisers efficient tools, created memorable experiences for participants and visitors. It also strengthened community pride, supported commercial opportunities, and offered an immersive, human-centred design experience that endured well beyond the event's long weekend.
Let’s bring your event to life
Looking for design that anchors stories in place and community energy? Let’s connect. Whether you need captivating event identities, public signage, or impactful branding systems.
Get in touch to collaborate on your next project.
