IT-Regatta Identity

5 min readApr 8, 2024

IT-Regatta is an international event for Russian-speaking founders, owners, and senior managers from various countries, predominantly from IT companies. The first regatta took place in 2018, with 4 yachts at the starting line — by 2022, the number of yachts had increased to 12, along with a significant growth in the number of participants.

IT-Regatta is a week-long mastermind, an emotional recharge, and professional-level yacht races with certified judging.

IT-People, the organizer of the regatta, carefully collects and works through feedback, continually adding new elements to the scenario: you will never sail in the same waters twice.

In 2022, the event team pondered on how to increase recognition, refresh the regatta’s image within the community, and visually emphasize its status with tools. With this request, the organizers of IT-Regatta approached Doubletapp.

How the Project Changed Users’ Lives

The presentation of the new identity became one of the highlights of the latest regatta. The boats docked at the first stop, and at the evening gathering of participants, Sergey Anchutin, CEO of Doubletapp, talked about the development of the new identity, showed how the idea evolved, and explained the rationale behind various decisions.

After the presentation, the new merchandise was given to the teams, and the next morning, the marina transformed — new mooring flags in the regatta’s corporate colors were raised.

After the races, the new prizes found their owners and dispersed to numerous offices, serving as reminders of the past regatta and inviting participation in the next one.

Business Task and Its Solution

In 2022, IT-People, the organizer of IT-Regatta, decided that the event had outgrown its visual inventory — it no longer fully reflected the complex set of meanings that had developed around the regatta, and an update was needed.

The design team at Doubletapp proposed developing a new original identity, as well as releasing merchandise, yacht accessories, and awards for the regatta winners in the new style.

A cohesive visual style will help make the brand recognizable and, in our case, will create a sense of space for the event, emphasize the community spirit among participants, and continue to work afterward. The regatta is a reputable and prestigious event; the use of merchandise demonstrates belonging to the community, and branded prizes and medals will find their place in offices worldwide, ensuring subtle engagement with potential regatta participants, and so on.

Craftsmanship, Implementation, Technical Details

As a symbol of unity, friendship, love for the sea, and yachting, a maritime knot was chosen, becoming the semantic core of the brand and the basis of its identity. The logo — both an image of the knot and a custom font used for the inscription — is a completely original development by Doubletapp designers. The rounded curves of the knot encode both the ocean wave and the wind-filled sails, as well as strength and dreams of distant lands. And the words “IT-Regatta” seem poised to take flight — there is so much air and wind in these letters.

In addition to the logo, the visual concept relies on two elements — large images of ropes tied into maritime knots and vertical black panels with typography. Maritime knots extend the narrative of the main logo and reveal its fluid beauty. Inclined panels with text are combined with maritime knots or used independently. All of this, along with the unexpected color choice for maritime themes, works to create a memorable image — dynamic, rugged, and sporty.

Insights, Hypotheses, Creation Process, and Customer Interaction

We surveyed regatta participants and formulated for ourselves what complex set of meanings IT-Regatta is currently filled with and what people seek and find here.

We listed and grouped these key associations and understood that at the heart of the brand is not just sports and racing, but communication, networking, and the opportunity for complex individuals to deeply understand each other and make friends in unusual conditions. From this seed, our further decisions grew.

Project team

Valeriia Krupina, Pavel Laptev, Ilia Sorokin, Sergei Anchutin.

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