The shipowner NCL is heavily emphasising innovation in an industry bound by tradition.
Design from Antwerp to Ålesund
From the west coast of Norway, the small, family-owned shipowner NCL offers logistics services by sea to the rest of Europe. They seek to offer the transport solutions of the future sooner rather than later, and we’ve contributed with a new visual identity and a new, more efficient website.
The website strongly prioritises key user tasks.
An industry in transition
Both the technology and the business models in the transport sector are undergoing rapid development, with services like Uber, Nimber, Xeneta, and self-driving vehicles on land and at sea. For NCL, it is important to face the competition, work smart, and innovate.
Sea transport with NCL Svelgen. Photo: Øyvind Sætre.
Rooted in reality
With great respect for heritage and history, we’ve modernised and created new visual tools inspired by NCL’s activities in the physical world; water, wind, steel, and moving large shipments by sea.
Old text branding, new logos, illustrations, typography, and icons. All in the same simple, clear design idiom.
«Not only have the deliveries been aesthetically wonderful, but we’ve also made a quantum leap in terms of user friendliness.»
Ada JakobsenMarketing Director of NCL
Containers on their way to Antwerp. Photo: Øyvind Sætre.
All the visual tools are well-documented in a branding handbook for the employees, cooperating partners and suppliers.
At the right place at the right time
For NCL’s customers, it’s important to be able to plan shipments and track ships. The website is integrated with external systems, so that the customers always have access to the latest data.
Results
The project started as a project where we would redesign a route table. However, NCL ended up allowing us to create a completely new visual identity, which is being expressed in everything from the icons and colours on the website, to the colours and logos painted on containers and the hulls of ships. Not to mention a completely new website with a solution for route tables and price inquiries, all completely unique in the shipping industry.
Excellence in the Visuelt Award
NCL.NO won the Visuelt Award 2020 in the Services and Tools category.
