Dubai has many beautiful beaches. Always mentioned in the top 10 list of the best beaches in Dubai is Kite Beach, owned by Shamal Holding. Kite Beach is Dubai’s most vibrant and beloved beach, enjoyed by a diverse audience of residents and tourists. However, the branding did not reflect this, which is why our brief, task, and objective were to completely rebrand it and create an identity as vibrant and lovable as the beach itself. This would ultimately drive even more footfall and create even more brand love, cementing it as the undisputed beach destination in Dubai. The budget for this project was part of the agency retainer (N/A). In terms of scale, it was a complete rebrand covering all touchpoints.

We started our rebrand by creating a manifesto and tagline that uniquely summed up the brand, which was "It’s a Beach State of Mind." A clear nod to "It’s a Sea State of Mind," which is the tagline for Dubai Harbour, which is also owned by Shamal Holding. This makes it clear that the projects are part of the same family. For the new identity, we drew inspiration from the name Kite Beach, unifying the kitesurfing sail and board to create a graphic and iconic mark - a distinct mark that reflects the playful nature of the brand.

To make it more playful, we also created a series of illustrations based on our logo. The target audience? a diverse mix of residents and tourists of all ages, but predominantly

a slightly younger crowd, with half Dubai residents and half visiting tourists.

Our completely revamped identity sported a brand new logo; a brand new colour palette, which also reflected the energetic vibe and derived from the colours found on the beach throughout the day. We paired this with a bold typeface and a plethora of playful logo illustrations to create a truly unique, playful and flexible identity.

A design system applicable for print and digital, easily lending itself to be animated. The process? We started with pencil and paper sketches, that was shortlisted down until we came up with the most elegant solution, which was derived from the name Kite Beach. We combined the kitesurfing sail and board to create a graphic and iconic mark.

In terms of imagery, a colorful duotone treatment was applied to all images and we also used fun 3D illustrations to play with our logo. In terms of scale, it was a complete rebrand covering all touchpoints.

Looking at the impact that our brand refresh has had, we can conclude that it has had a positive impact. Footfall has increased by about 30%, and the beach is now regularly listed as one of the best beaches in Dubai (for instance, Time Out Dubai 2022 ranked it in third place in the category of best open beaches). Kite Beach has also proudly featured as the cover image on the Dubai Tourism "Tourism Performance Report" (in the Jan-Sep 22 report and also in the Jan-Oct 22 report). Seeing that its reach and cultural impact have improved a lot, we've hit our KPIs of creating a stronger and more vibrant brand identity, giving an already loved beach even more exposure and reasons to love it with an identity that can last for decades to come.