Paul Gauguin Cruises
A soulful ship tells its own story
A soulful ship tells its own story
This document was written to help the creative team of Paul Gauguin Cruises to get closer to the truth; the truth of the experience of cruising the South Seas with the MS Paul Gauguin. The new tone of voice was evoked in a series of vignettes which captioned the new visual language in a Brand Playbook. The brand refresh also included a new tagline.
Where luxury escapes ...
What you create, what you write and draw, what you say – it is the one Story and the one voice of Paul Gauguin Cruises. It will be heard, even as a whisper, above the hubbub of traffic in New York, in the chill of Paris fall, through the fog of The Golden Gate.
Imagine our audience as they hear the stories, the songs and the ancient music of the South Seas, the warm, tranquil heart of the Pacific. Our audience is aching for this experience. They have been trying, perhaps for many years, to find this place within themselves. The South Seas are past, present and future in one moment. This is where the intellect must readily acknowledge the primacy of the senses. This is where people want to go, to let themselves go. This is where luxury escapes from the catwalks of Paris, the canyons of Manhattan and the campus of California. This is where luxury escapes to unwind.
Where luxury escapes ...
What you create, what you write and draw, what you say – it is the one Story and the one voice of Paul Gauguin Cruises. It will be heard, even as a whisper, above the hubbub of traffic in New York, in the chill of Paris fall, through the fog of The Golden Gate.
Imagine our audience as they hear the stories, the songs and the ancient music of the South Seas, the warm, tranquil heart of the Pacific. Our audience is aching for this experience. They have been trying, perhaps for many years, to find this place within themselves. The South Seas are past, present and future in one moment. This is where the intellect must readily acknowledge the primacy of the senses. This is where people want to go, to let themselves go. This is where luxury escapes from the catwalks of Paris, the canyons of Manhattan and the campus of California. This is where luxury escapes to unwind.
The Story of Paul Gauguin Cruises
We are here to tell a story of luxurious adventures, a story that has been told for thousands
of years ... first in the South Seas and then, in later centuries, across the globe.
Welcome to the Paul Gauguin Cruises Brand PlayBook.
This short book is designed to provide you with the information and inspiration you need to
portray the soul of our brand to the wider world, consistently and effectively.
Every element of this book is shaped and inspired by the Paul Gauguin Cruises Story. That
narrative serves as a reminder of who we are. It also serves as our conscience, as we
assume a responsibility for representing French Polynesia wherever we sail, whether at
home in South Pacific island waters, or around Europe, the Caribbean, or in Latin America. It
is the story that we want our guests to carry in their hearts long after they have left the decks
of our ships—the m/s Paul Gauguin and the m/v Tere Moana.
This Brand PlayBook has guidelines on how to explain Paul Gauguin Cruises, through written
word and visual image, ensuring a more meaningful connection with “a luxury language that
speaks to all five senses.” It is a natural, living, breathing luxury that was born centuries ago
in the South Seas. This Brand PlayBook, too, is a living, breathing document, and sections
will be added to it or refined as more elements of the brand are added.
Some ships sail upon the sea.
Paul Gauguin Cruise ships are creatures of the sea.
The sea is our natural element. Our playground touches every corner of the earth’s surface.
For us, the green world must bow to the blue: from our own great, grand, and glorious South
Pacific, which we call Moana Nui, over the world’s oceans and seas.
The Story of Paul Gauguin Cruises began in the South Pacific. But it does not end there.
Today, the distinctive island spirit of the South Seas is setting a course for Latin America, the
Caribbean and Europe.
Back home in French Polynesia, there are 118 islands and atolls and countless. Each has its
own distinctive beauty, atmosphere and myth. But Paul Gauguin Cruises has created two
additional islands that can move.
One island—The Gauguin—dances across the blue water of home, with dolphins surfing in
her bow wave.
One island—The Moana—cruises to the rhythm of an openhearted people as she explores
the familiar warmth of the Caribbean. She brings the broad smile of the New World islands to
the ancient waters of the Mediterranean, Aegean, Adriatic, Ionian, Tyrrhenian, and Black Seas: perhaps
we could call them “The Seas of the Old World.”
One island tattoos her gentle wake in a leisurely aparima, the Polynesian ballet. The other,
like a latter-day Polynesian craft steering by the stars, undertakes monumental voyages of
discovery far from home, but always carrying the precious cargo of uninhibited South Sea
luxury.
One island in constant motion is the award-winning Gauguin, built specifically to sail in the
South Pacific. These are home waters. Every navigable lagoon is her port, as the she rests at
anchor, turning with the tide, as lissome and lithe as any yacht.
The Gauguin’s shipmate, The Moana—“Ocean Traveler” in English—is exploring new
corners of the ocean map. In spite of her stature, The Moana is a fearless seafarer, in the
spirit of the Polynesians who charted the Pacific. She can be found in the less accessible
anchorages of the Caribbean, Latin America and “The Seas of the Old World” in Europe.
Wherever she goes, she confirms the adage that “small is beautiful.” Her sleek outline brings
a splash of a warmer ocean to well-known routes. Seen through Polynesian eyes, the familiar
coastlines and ports of Europe and Latin America take on a more intimate aspect, renewing
the spirits and reinvigorating the senses. The Moana, like all good seafarers, finds it easy to
fit into any shared maritime culture, feeling instantly at one with her newfound friends, from
the Panama Canal to the Black Sea. She carries away a treasured memory from every visit
ashore!
Guests of The Gauguin and The Moana all become honorary Polynesian islanders for the
duration of their cruise. Wherever their voyages take them, they are carried along by the
sensual story of a physical and emotional luxury that is as unforced and unhurried as it has
been for thousands of years.
This is mana mana, the ultimate luxury of self-discovery, the deep soul and spirit of the five
senses. It encourages direct experience of cultures wherever we go. The story of Paul
Gauguin Cruises is told in the language of the senses from the heady sweetness of
frangipani in Tahiti to the otherworldly rainbow colors of tropical fish in The Caribbean; from
the many tongues of a busy market in Istanbul to the aroma of open air cooking on the
ancient islands of Greece; and from the crisp salt tang of a transatlantic passage leaving
Malaga to the ethereal light of a sunset over the Colosseum in Rome.
cover photo courtesy: Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash
The new tagline positions Paul Gauguin Cruises as the authentic experience of the vast and complex South Seas, moving away from its specific, narrow Tahitian island heritage.
The tone of voice for the new Gauguin brand establishes the ship as an organic part of the South Seas, just as if it were an island. From this perspective, the Gauguin brand speaks with newfound authenticity.
