What if you knew, deep down, that your dreams were just a text away?

Dorée was built on a belief held by our founder, Julie: some of us carry pure gold within. They only need the courage to believe in themselves, so that the world can see it.

Valérie reached out to us because she knew who she could be to the world. What she didn't know was how to build her brand.

"I don't want to be called a coach," she told us. And honestly, we weren't looking to work with coaches either.

But then we learned who Valérie had worked for. We heard about her knowledge, her experience and, above all, her charisma.

And we knew.

We knew her success was just a brand away.

So many coaches, too many coaches

We love market study, but this one was an intense question within the team of "How can people

Our Approach

We began with a three-week discovery phase — spending time with the founding team, reviewing archival race photography, and mapping the competitive landscape from Arc’teryx to Musto. The insight that shaped everything: Vela’s customers don’t wear sailing gear to look like sailors. They wear it because it performs. That shifted our direction from nautical nostalgia to technical elegance.

Identity System

The logomark is a single, continuous line forming a sail under tension — minimal, geometric, unmistakably purposeful. It works at 8px on a hang tag and 8 metres on a race committee boat. We paired it with an extended type system built on a modified grotesque for headlines and a high-contrast serif for editorial contexts, giving the brand range across performance tags and lookbook spreads.

The colour system moved away from heritage navy entirely. We landed on an off-black we called Carbon, a warm off-white called Salt, and a single accent — a deep petrol blue that only appears as a spot colour on premium pieces. No gradients. No shadows. Every application feels considered.

Packaging

We redesigned the full packaging suite across four product categories. Boxes are single-colour lithograph on uncoated stock. Tissue is embossed with the logomark at 40% opacity. The swing tag is die-cut to the shape of the sail mark. Every touchpoint reinforces the same idea: nothing unnecessary.

Typography System

We documented the complete type system across seven scales — from micro labels on care instructions through to billboard-scale campaign type. Each scale has defined tracking, leading, and colour rules so the in-house team can extend the system without breaking it.

Outcome

Vela launched their e-commerce store four months after we began. Within the first quarter, average order value was 34% higher than their previous wholesale channel. The brand has since been featured in Monocle, Huck, and Boat International. The founding team described it simply: “It finally looks like what it is.”