Velaria
Client
Velaria Offshore
Year
2024
Role
Art direction, campaign concept, casting
Discipline
Art Direction
A campaign for a technical sailing apparel brand, shot over six grey days in the Azores, where the weather wrote most of the brief.
01 — Context
Velaria makes technical outerwear for offshore sailors: shells, mid-layers and salopettes tested on long Atlantic crossings. The product was excellent. The imagery, until then, was studio packshots and stock photos of sunny regattas.
For the 2024 winter collection, the founders wanted a campaign that sailors would recognize as true and that would still stop someone scrolling on land.
02 — Challenge
Sailing campaigns tend to fall into two clichés: blue skies and champagne, or heroic spray shot from a helicopter. Neither shows what the gear is actually for, which is hours of cold, wet, unglamorous work.
We had a six-day window, a 14-meter boat, a crew of real sailors and no control over the weather.
03 — Process
We chose the Azores in November on purpose: low cloud, hard wind and a flat grey light that makes signal orange glow. I built the shot list around tasks instead of poses, like reefing, coiling lines and changing watch at 4 a.m.
Casting came from the sailing community in Horta. We kept faces mostly turned away or in motion, so the clothing and the work carried each frame. Every evening we reviewed selects on a laptop in the harbor bar and rewrote the next day’s list.
04 — Solution
The campaign runs on a strict palette: storm grey, wet black and one signal orange that appears only on the product. Wide shots are paired with macro studies of fabric and rope, shot on deck between maneuvers, that show coatings, seams and wear.
One line of copy, “Hold the line,” anchors the posters. They were printed on uncoated stock and pasted on harbor walls in Lisbon, La Rochelle and Cowes, where sailors actually walk past them.
05 — Outcome
The winter collection sold through 30% faster than the year before. Velaria now shoots every season in the same conditions, on purpose.
In numbers
+30%
Faster sell-through than last winter
6
Days at sea, no reshoots
4×
Organic reach over the season
Credits
Art direction
Mara Ellis
Production
Sofia Medeiros
Styling
Clara Duarte
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