Mother Design brands first all-electric raceboat championship E1

Ahead of the inaugural racing season in 2023, the sports entertainment brand’s new look was revealed at the Venice Boat Show. London and New York-based agency Mother Design was responsible for the new visual identity including the logo, colour palette and typography.

E1 was founded by Rodi Basso, formerly of Formula One’s Ferrari and Red Bull Racing teams, and Alejandro Agag, the founder of Formula E and Extreme E, on the three core principles of sustainability, technology and entertainment.

While understanding the need to highlight the eco-friendly credentials of the new fixture on the sports calendar, Mother Design’s work aims to go beyond the brand’s ties with sustainability and increase E1’s mass appeal by highlighting its entertainment value. Throughout the project, the agency focused heavily on identity elements which evoked clean water, aquatic energy and marine environments.

Harry Edmonds, creative director at Mother Design London, says, “E1 is first and foremost an entertainment brand, but one with ambitions to do great things for the planet and leave a legacy of change – the shift away from petrol powered engines on our waterways.

“It is also a company driven by technological innovation, with the new championship the first of its kind. By emphasising the entertainment value of E1 in order to reach as wide an audience as possible, we in turn raise more awareness of the sustainability ambitions that are inherent to the brand.”

Mother Design sought to demonstrate a degree of visual independence for E1 from its sister brands, Formula E and Extreme E, by producing a suite of patterns inspired by marine flora and fauna, and a bold colour palette. Inspired by the tropical sea, the new brand also makes use of a unique colour palette which includes Electric Blue, Aquatic Green and Coral Pink. Additionally, this allows crowds to easily follow the action due to the colours being distinguishable when in the water.

E1’s logo specifically aims to communicate energy and fluidity, while the hope for the bespoke typography is that it becomes instantly recognisable. Based on the sans-serif typeface Roobert, Mother Design worked with Displaay Type Foundry to engineer 27 specifically crafted characters which also evoke fluidity.

Edmonds says, “One of our core missions at Mother Design is to make our children proud, so E1’s aim to help protect the world’s oceans, lakes and rivers really spoke to us as an agency. To see this work come to life as a tangible project has been very exciting and it’s great to think that wider audiences will be able to connect with the sport and its values soon.”