OUGD603 - Brief 01 - Sierra - Research

As the brief states that outcomes must revolve around the name of the yacht, I have made some initial research into the word 'Sierra'. The three main definitions found are:

Last year, I created various logos for a boat named 'Megalodon'. During the research stages I looked into the name - investigating the shark and its qualities. As my identity was successfully accepted by the client, I am going to follow a similar research route in this brief. To visually start thinking about the word, i've made some in-depth research into the definitions.



Definition 1:

Historically, Sierra meant 'saw' in Latin and Spanish. The word has then been used to describe mountain ranges, due to the sawtooth appearance of the peaks. Examples include the Sierra Nevada and the Sierra Madre. Some people also believe that the name originated from the term 'saw' due to the high populations of lumberjacks living in mountainous regions and their use of the tool.

Sierra Leone, the West African country, dates back to 1462, when a Portuguese explorer sailed down the coast of West Africa. Various sources claim that Pedro da Cintra came up with 'Sierra Lyoa'. meaning Lion Mountains, because of the climatic conditions and landscape.

Google's NGram feature highlighted the popularity of the word over the past two centuries. As seen below, the word has increased in use and popularity over time. Whilst this may not seem that relevant, the graph ironically caught my attention as it visually links to the aesthetic 'saw' qualities of mountains and hills. It is an aspect that could inspire some initial ideas.













As yacht logos always tend to use type, I have considered the possibility of using mountains and cliffs as inspiration for a typeface. Some research has been made into existing typefaces to see if anything like that has been done before.

The most visually related typeface that has been obviously inspired by mountains is called 'Mountain'. The stems of letters are very sharp and angular, resembling the contours in mountains and hills. As the word Sierra has been used to describe the sawtooth appearance of peaks, this has inspired me to generate some typographic sketches in the idea generation stage. 

Definition 2

The Pacific sierra (Scomberomorus sierra), also known as the Mexican sierra, is a ray-finned bony fish in the mackerel family. More specifically, this fish is a member of Spanish mackerels.

It's most easily distinguished by its pigment and colour pattern. It is silver-blue above and silvery white on the lower sides, covered in a series of yellow-brown spots. The anterior half of the first part of the dorsal fin is jet black, in contrast to the lighter remainder of the fin. It is a fast moving, voracious predator that feeds on small fish and they have sharp teeth.

The fish has very unique patterns and colours on it which could be used to inspire some ideas.

Definition 3

'Sierra' is one of the code words in the NATO phonetic alphabet, which essentially the most widely used radiotelephonic spelling alphabet. The International Civil Aviation Organization assigned codewords acrophonically to the letters of the English alphabet, so that critical combinations of letters and numbers are most likely to be pronounced and understood by those who exchange voice messages by radio or telephone, regardless of language differences or the quality of the communication channel. As seen below, 'Sierra' represents the letter 'S'. Its morse code is three dots which accounts to three clicks.

Existing Yacht Identities

To see whether there are any superyachts out there that use the name 'Sierra' I have made some research online. Studio Vafiadis designed a boat named 'Sierra Romeo' which uses a purely typographic identity. To try and produce an identity that differs from this, I will carefully consider materials in this project.