Open Agency guides Cunard brand

The Open Agency has created an identity for Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 and is now working to bring a more consistent brand look to other ships in the fleet.

The consultancy, which is set to become ‘the custodian of the [Cunard] brand’, is preparing brand guidelines that will cover the identity’s application to everything from tickets to on-board signage, says The Open Agency managing director Mike Horseman.

The guidelines will be delivered via a Web ‘microsite’, to be used as a ‘global reference point for all parties on an international scale to dip into and download relevant information’, says Horseman.

The fee for the consultancy’s on-going brand development work is yet to be finalised, but it could rise to six figures, he adds.

The Open Agency won the identity job while working on an on-board exhibition project for Cunard called The Maritime Quest (DW 16 August 2001).

Creative director Gary Cook adds, ‘The Cunard corporate identity was being used across different ships, but it was just the Cunard crest and an off-the-shelf logo style and typeface.

We felt the Queen Mary 2 needed more than that. As we’d created a specific font [Cunardia] for the exhibition, we suggested this should be followed through to the ship’s identity.’

The guidelines will extend to cover the endorsement strategy for the Caronia and Queen Elizabeth 2.