When we unveiled our new branding earlier this year, our riders offered rave reviews.

This month, our new look received even more recognition when we were named a MarCom Gold Award Winner, an international marketing and communications competition!

The honor is especially meaningful for us because our branding campaign – which features a new logo and program mark –was entirely an in-house effort that saved an estimated $30,000. We designed, produced and implemented the rebrand solely with King County talent.

The effort was spearheaded by our own Shoreside Operations Manager Greg Lerner and graphic designer Amy Sanders with the King County Department of Transportation Communications team —and it was buoyed by support from talented Metro and Department of Natural Resource and Parks graphic designers.

The Water Taxi program logo was carefully thought out to be simple, unique and bold. It is designed in a manner that depicts the shape of the Water Taxi vessel and represents the region. The logo features various elements that are signature to our popular service:

• Sun and Water – the program brand mark is a conceptual, dual-purpose graphic depicting the Water Taxi and the sun over water. It represents speed, reliability and the Seattle waterscape.
• Speed and Agility – the sleek flavor reflects the design of the Water Taxi’s three catamarans, the MV Sally Fox, MV Doc Maynard and the MV Spirit of Kingston.
• Landscape – a reflection of the rider experience on the Water Taxi, whether the destination is Downtown Seattle, West Seattle or Vashon Island.

“I was so pleased with the results of the new brand produced by our exceptionally talented staff,” Water Taxi Director Paul Brodeur said. “This brand is seen by our customers daily, and it really captures the essence of what our service and our region impart on their daily commutes.”

This is the second national award that Water Taxi earned in 2017. Earlier this year, Ron Panzero, Operations and Maintenance Manager for the Marine Division, was awarded the Roger Murphy National Marine Safety Award, for his work to improve safety by demonstrating, enhancing and contributing to the Water Taxi’s overall safety efforts.

About the MarCom Awards

The MarCom Award is an international creative competition that recognizes outstanding achievement by marketing and communication professionals. Entries come from corporate marketing and communication departments, advertising agencies, PR firms, design shops, production companies and freelancers. The competition has grown to perhaps the largest of its kind in the world. A look at the winners shows a range in size from individual communicators to media conglomerates and Fortune 500 companies. The competition is so well respected in the industry that national public relations organizations, local ad clubs, and local business communicator chapters are entrants.

The MarCom Award is administered and judged by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals. The international organization consists of several thousand creative professionals. The Association oversees awards and recognition programs, provides judges and sets standards for excellence. Judges are industry professionals who look for companies and individuals whose talents exceed a high standard of excellence and whose work serves as a benchmark for the industry. Entries come from throughout the United States, Canada and dozens of other countries. In the past, about 15 percent of entries won Platinum, the top award and around 20 percent the Gold Award.

Being a Platinum or Gold Winner is a tremendous achievement symbolized by the intricately detailed MarCom statuette. The MarCom graces the trophy cases of some of the top business and communication firms in the world. The statuette was created by Society Awards, a high-end design and manufacturing firm that recently updated the Golden Globe, Clio, MTV and Academy of Country Music awards. The shiny die-cast MarCom statuette stands 13 inches tall on a black nickel metal base with a personalized name plate and category being honored.