Of all the things we could have built a coastal collection around, we picked a pelican; not a palm tree, or an anchor, or a perfectly curling wave, but a pelican. The more we've worked on Beak & Tide, the more convinced we've become that we picked the right bird.
Pelicans aren't exactly elegant in the traditional sense. They can look prehistoric standing on a dock. Their proportions are strange. They occasionally stare at you like you've personally disappointed them. Then one takes off. Suddenly this slightly ridiculous-looking bird is gliding inches above the water like it owns the Atlantic. That's pretty hard not to like.
The Pelican Has Personality
When we started shaping the identity of Beak & Tide, we wanted something with more character than a generic coastal symbol.
There is nothing wrong with palm trees, waves and anchors. They're immediately recognizable, which is exactly why they've appeared on approximately eleven billion beach shirts. We wanted Beak & Tide to have a personality of its own and the pelican gave us one.
Spend enough time around the Florida coast and you start noticing them everywhere. They're sitting on pilings around marinas., flying in formation just above the waves, hanging around fishing boats with suspiciously good timing, and, of course, there's the dive.
A pelican can be peacefully cruising along and then suddenly fold itself into what appears to be a completely irresponsible angle and plunge straight into the ocean. Seconds later it pops back up like nothing happened.
That's a mascot with material.
We Didn't Want Just Any Pelican
Once we decided the pelican would become central to Beak & Tide, another problem appeared. It's very easy to make a pelican look like a wildlife illustration. It's also easy to go too far in the opposite direction and end up with a cartoon character that belongs on a children's T-shirt. Neither was right for Beak & Tide.
We wanted ours to have character without becoming goofy. That distinction has influenced how we've developed the mascot ever since. The bird needs enough attitude to be recognizable, the silhouette needs to read from a distance, and the bill, posture and proportions matter. Even as we create different artwork around it, the pelican itself needs to remain familiar.
In other words, we're not just putting different birds on different shirts. We're building one bird people should eventually recognize as Beak & Tide. That's a much bigger challenge. It's also considerably more interesting.
There's Something Very Florida About Him
Maybe part of our attachment to the pelican comes from building this collection in St. Augustine. Around here, pelicans aren't decorative they're part of the scenery.
You can watch them cruising beside the Bridge of Lions, sitting around the marina or working the shoreline at the beach. You don't have to seek them out. They're simply there, going about their business.
That's exactly the kind of coastal reference we want Beak & Tide to draw from...not the imaginary coast but the actual one. The slightly weathered, occasionally messy, lived-in Atlantic coast where boats need cleaning, salt gets on everything and the wildlife doesn't particularly care whether it fits into your photograph.
That feels much more like us.
The Pelican Started Becoming More Than a Logo
This is where things have gotten interesting. At first, a pelican could simply have been a recognizable visual element for Beak & Tide, but the more we developed the collection, the more we realized he could become the thread running through it.
"Auggie" is sometimes prominent, sometimes subtle, sometimes behaving exactly as you'd expect a pelican to behave, and sometimes giving us an opportunity to have a little fun with coastal life.
That's where we think Beak & Tide has room to become something more distinctive, because a mascot gives a brand something a generic logo can't always provide: a point of view.
We can build stories around Auggie. We can put him into situations coastal people recognize. We can let him carry some humor without turning the entire brand into novelty apparel. Over time, Auggie can become something customers recognize before they even read the words Beak & Tide.
That's the goal anyway, but we're not there yet. Building that kind of recognition takes repetition and restraint, which means resisting the temptation to redesign the character every time we have a new idea.
So, Why a Pelican?
Because pelicans are coastal without trying to be. They're distinctive. They're a little strange. They're surprisingly graceful. They have plenty of personality. Here on Florida's Atlantic coast, they genuinely belong.
That's a pretty good description of what we want from the Beak & Tide collection too. Besides, palm trees already have enough T-shirts. We're giving this one to the pelican.
0 comments