Insight
The birth of a team
Team founders Michael Stocks and Dom Ashdown dreamt of giving a team of elite ultrarunners the type of support network more familiar to leading Olympians. The expertise and comradery to help them run with the best in the world. Team Hour 7 was born.
Hour 7 is the point in a race when the mental aspect of running becomes as important as the physical. The team's aims are to help athletes in their pursuit of the incredible, provide a global centre for innovation and best practice in human endurance, contribute to the study of mental and physical endurance, and share what they learn, and inspire others.
The brief
A blank canvas
Team Hour 7 were starting from the ground up when they requested our help. Their brand values screamed high performance, a keen focus on the science of endurance, and inclusivity and collaboration.
Hour 7 required the complete creation of their visual identity, along with the design and development of their website. Importance was placed on the quality of the website appearance, as the new ultrarunning team wanted to make a great first impression to potential sponsors.
Brand
Brand identity
Hour 7 was initially just a name and an idea. DH were brought on to help bring it visually to life.
An initial round of logo concepts were born very early on, as it was clear that a striking element like the number 7 needed to kick-start designs. Big, bold colours were a must, to align with the team’s motivation and drive to push limits and break boundaries. Typography followed the crazy nature of the team, and could not be uniform.
The end result was a vibrant, dynamic visual identity, clearly identifying that this is a new and fresh running brand.
Web
The platform
As part of the brand creation process, DH designed and developed Hour 7's website.
The team needed to show off their athletes, their advisors, and their achievements. A lot of information had to be conveyed in a clear and succinct format, because the prominent audience so early on was potential corporate sponsors.
News articles of multiple content mediums were required, and the team needed to upload them themselves. DH ensured there was an intuitive, administrative area to source videos, podcasts, photo galleries, external web pages, and more.
So many fantastic photos and videos were taken of the team during training camps and photoshoots. It was important to display these in a high quality format, while maintaining efficient page loads.
Results
Impact
Sponsorship deals with leading fitness clothing and nutrition brands
Rising website traffic and social media followings
A strong, positive brand built from scratch
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