2010 REVIEW 2011 PREVIEW - International Dragon Association

4 New Identity must meet thefollowing objectives:a. Be unified and cohesiveacross all forms of communicationincluding:• The sails• The boat• NDA & IDA Letterheads• Literature. Promo, NOR, SIs• Media. Web, Publications• Clothing. Ties, shirts, belts• Jewelry. Pins, cuff links,brooches, necklaces• Stickers. Cars, trailers, signsb. Communicate the broad internationalreach of the classc. Reinforce the unique natureof the Dragon family to allcurrent and past Dragon sailors.The family operates on 2tiers, firstly nationally and secondinternationally.d. Communicate the benefits ofthe class to potential Dragonsailors. The most importantcharacteristics for this targetaudience are the high level ofcompetition, the internationalspread and the tight onedesign, classic metre style ofthe boat.e. The Dragon identity shouldalso include a unique symbolcapable of independent registrationto protect its franchiseSo that was my creative briefand direction to which I added:Our non-Branding has comeabout by the class being totallyCorinthian in its approachto development. It has allowedthe class to present as a vibrant,diverse, competitive, amateur,amorphous entity that has, unsurprisingly,tended to borrowbranding from its heroes likeBorresen and Hoj Jensen andassociated brands like Borresen,Petticrows and Norths. This hasgiven the class personality ratherthan a specific branding. Per-sonalities vary, the perceptionof ‘things Dragon’ varies also.Unlike the Melges for examplewho are well branded, theDragon has a ‘D’ only at its centre,and girth. Unlike the Melgeshowever, the Dragon has a longand colourful history to drawfrom in the creation of a DragonBrand. We are well served byour past, by the personalities,and by the sheer beauty of thehull design and sail shapes.Our branding should be,strong, clean, universal, international,modern, and mostimportantly, applied to EVERY-THING in a consistent manner. Itmust be a brand for the IDA, theNational Dragon Associations,the events we compete in andthe Dragon herself. Fortunatelywe have a start in the recognisablehull shape and sail shapesthemselves. This Dragon imageryis innate, intrinsic and betterleft unstated in the branding, ifonly to leave the purities of themix, floating at the top. Plus, inone design racing, the InternationalDragon is at the pinnacleof its category. It has a long andproud history from which itdraws constant sustenance andacclaim. It has a Royal heritage,and an Olympic heritage andmaintains its category pinnaclewith authority and to a delightfuldegree, humility also.The new branding needed torespect its long and proud historyand build on it.The 8 Metre Class grew out ofthe 1907 First International Rule.This allowed One Design as weknow it to be established andgave them an early entrée intothe Olympics. The Second InternationalRule came into effect in1914. Thankfully, this introducedgreater rationality to the optimizingof metre boat designsand began the move to a fairerOne Design culture.After designing and buildingliterally dozens of metre boats,it was not until the late 1920’sthat Johan Anker settled on abalance between beam andlength that optimized waterspeed and boat handling. Anker’slong and successful metreboat design and productionexperience led him to designthe smallest metre boat ... theDragon! In combination with itsperfectly balanced sail plan theDragon became the most successfulOne Design metre boatever launched. The Dragon isnot known as a metre boat today,but that is very much herDNA.From the beginning of metreboat racing, their sails displayeda class number or letter with asolid line beneath. The vessel’ssail number was under the solidline per ...J 6 8 12 D11 12 16 10 19And yes, the Dragon was alsoidentified this way ... that too, isan integral part of the Dragonclass history.Together with our fellow Officers,we worked on several solutions.Phyllis Chang wished tohold on to remants of the existing‘D.’ Richard Blickman calledfor more acknowledgement ofour metre history. So after discardingseveral creative directions...the Officers settled on a ‘fromthe past, for the future’ universalclass identity for use on oursails, stationery, and merchandise;in publications, Notices ofRace, Sailing Instructions; at regattasetc ... in fact everywherewe ‘show the Dragon’ facearound the world.The following designs wereapproved at the 2010 IDA AGMin London in October.Class Logo: For use by the IDAand National Dragon Associations.[Sails & Merchandise Insignia:For use by the IDA and Sail Makers.]Presenting ‘ONE IDENTITY’ tothe world.There is more ... the readermay download Class IdentityGuidelines from the IDA WebSite. They are part of the IDARegulations.Page 31