Co-Designing the Youth Boat Race
The nooh team recently had the pleasure of working with Fulham Reach Boat Club, helping to develop fresh branding for their new event - the Youth Boat Race. Having grown up watching the original boat race each year with her family and passionate about grassroots sports, our Creative Director Helena was excited to be involved.
The Youth Boat Race represents a transformative and educational initiative rooted in the belief that, in the words of Nelson Mandela…
"sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire, it has the power to unite people in a way that little else does”
We approached the project in the same way we approach all our work here at nooh - through co-design. Our human-centred storytelling technique brings together diverse perspectives and invites end-users and stakeholders to become collaborators.
A brand created for young people by young people
This meant we designed the brand for the Youth Boat Race with the young people involved in the competition. It all started with a brand questionnaire, which we took round to the boat club early one morning. Thanks to the typical London weather, nobody was rowing that day, so instead the young people came up with designs for the event’s logo and branding. It was amazing to feel the energy in the room and get an insight into their love for rowing, with many of them telling us how uplifting and motivating they find it.
Engaging in this co-design process with the young people not only led to more creative ideas, but means when the brand goes out ‘in the wild’ there’ll be increased engagement. The young rowers already can't wait to get their hands on the merch, t-shirts and medals in April. And we can’t wait to see them with it!
nooh Studio team
As usual, we were amazed by all the creative concepts that came to light. The ideas around taking an elite sport and making it feel more grassroots, youthful and accessible were particularly inspiring. The end result is a brand brought to life with a big, bold font, loud colours, and of course a boat - which goes across the logo, distorted by water.
Branding Created to pilot a new grassroots sport initiative
Thank you to the Fulham Reach Boat Club for involving us in this project, we can't wait to see the engagement from the young people taking part in this pilot boat race. Co-design really does amazing things in the youth sector - including young people in conversations about them, bringing people together and increasing engagement. Let’s hope the buzz continues to grow and the Youth Boat Race continues for many years to come!
This was one of the two yearly pro bono charity projects we take part in here at nooh. If you have a project you think would be a good fit for our next one, just drop us a message here and tell us all about it.
