James Fleay spent 22 years as a super yacht captain before coming home to the Sunshine Coast.
He had the credentials, the experience, and two businesses ready to launch. What he needed was a brand that could hold all of it without shrinking any of it. Fleay Marine became the umbrella. Everything beneath it had to feel earned.
The Brief
James came with two distinct service arms: Lifetime Boats, a yacht and boat brokerage, and BoatSmart HQ Sunshine Coast, a vessel management franchise. The challenge was building one cohesive brand identity that communicated authority across both, while leaving room for each arm to breathe on its own.
The brand needed to speak to buyers, sellers, and existing boat owners. It needed to feel premium without being cold. Maritime without being predictable. Personal without being informal.
Who We Are
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The identity was built around a high-contrast display serif, drawing from the visual language of luxury yachting and coastal precision. "Fleay Marine" sits wide and confident. The subtitle, set in spaced caps, names both businesses clearly beneath it.
Six logo colour variants were developed to flex across every surface: rust on dark photography, navy on white, cream in footer contexts, steel blue for a cooler coastal register. Every variant is purpose-built. None of them compromise.
The colour palette anchors in deep navy and warm terracotta. The terracotta does the heavy lifting, carrying headings, CTAs, and accent moments throughout the site. It keeps the brand warm and human where the navy keeps it authoritative.
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The website copy was written entirely in James's voice. First person. Direct. No hollow credentials, no sales language. Just straight talk from someone who has captained vessels over 50 metres and knows what a buyer actually needs to hear.
Every page serves a clear purpose. The homepage positions the whole offer. Lifetime Boats handles the brokerage journey. BoatSmart HQ makes the case for preventative ownership care. My Journey builds trust through story. The FAQ section answers the real questions, not the easy ones.
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Print and digital materials were designed to sit comfortably within the brand. Business cards for both service arms were built with the navy water-texture front and clean contact back, anchored by the BoatSmart HQ logo alongside James's name and credentials. A flyer for BoatSmart HQ Sunshine Coast was also produced for local marina distribution, built to recruit new subscribers in a tactile, high-impression format.