SIMBA Surf had been leading the conversation around surf safety ever since they launched their first product, the Sentinel 1 helmet, in 2020.<\/p>\n
However, as the brand grew and the company prepared to launch a new generation of surf helmets, the team realised their identity hadn\u2019t kept up with their ambition.<\/p>\n
Ahead of a new product launch, the team tore up the old playbook. Working alongside London-based brand and design studio Planning Unit<\/a>, SIMBA Surf rebranded as HYDA Helmets, introducing a considered visual system and a purpose-built ecommerce experience alongside the new name.<\/p>\n \u201cThe investment team had decided the brand needed a little bit of new life,\u201d says Greg Keeling, VP of market development. \u201cSo much attention had gone into the product and the new line \u2013 and into getting it out into the world \u2013 but very little into the brand that held it all together.\u201d<\/p>\n Planning Unit\u2019s brand for HYDA<\/p>\n Along with launching HYDA into its next chapter, the new identity had to respond to a cultural shift in the world of surfing. For decades, helmets had been a hard sell in surf culture. Older, more conservative surfers saw them as unnecessary, a break from tradition. But a new wave of younger surfers \u2013 raised on bike and skate culture \u2013 view helmets as tools to improve their craft by pushing their limits.<\/p>\n SIMBA Surf\u2019s earlier positioning had leaned on safety messaging, but as Keeling explains, the team deliberately shifted the focus. The goal wasn\u2019t to talk about protection, but progression, giving surfers the confidence to charge harder.<\/p>\n \u201cWe wanted to celebrate the technology and design behind the helmets \u2013 to give them real shelf presence \u2013 while keeping the brand authentic; something made by surfers, for surfers,\u201d says Keeling.<\/p>\n Even in rebuilding the brand for a modern audience, Planning Unit didn\u2019t abandon its visual history. The logo of SIMBA Surf held a trident within it, a motif which the team carried forward to the \u2018Y\u2019 in the wordmark.<\/p>\n The trident within SIMBA Surf\u2019s logo was reimagined by Planning Unit for HYDA<\/p>\n The trident is linked to ancient gods of the sea, representing dominance over the ocean. In modern surf culture, it has come to symbolise strength, courage and protection.<\/p>\n The wordmark was custom-drawn for legibility, unity and balance while adding a subtle emphasis to the trident. This combines with a \u201cshelter-shaped \u2018A\u2019 that represents HYDA\u2019s desire to always protect and care for those who use its products,\u201d says Planning Unit co-founder Nick Hard.<\/p>\n The letterforms were intentionally crafted to be simple. \u201cWe didn\u2019t want the identity to feel overcomplicated \u2013 it had to be confident, instantly recognisable, and legible even in motion and in water,\u201d adds Hard.<\/p>\n The typographic palette is strengthened by the addition of S\u00f6hne Halbfett and S\u00f6hne Buch, chosen for their clean, no-nonsense construction and strong legibility in high-visibility settings. Elsewhere, Mikro from Letters from Sweden brings a technical flavour.<\/p>\n To expand the visual system, the team drew the trident out of the logo and evolved it into an ownable brand mark. It now forms wave-like patterns that move fluidly across both static and motion assets, and extends into product design \u2013 appearing on HYDA\u2019s latest helmet line, Coanda.<\/p>\n Alongside building a coherent visual system, the team wanted the product itself to be desirable, supported by packaging that elevates it from pure utility to a design object in its own right.<\/p>\n \u201cWe looked at what everyone else was doing in terms of packaging and decided to do the opposite. Most boxes were white or plain cardboard \u2013 we went completely black, added patterns, and cut window openings so the colour of the helmets pops through,\u201d says Planning Unit co-founder Jeff Knowles.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the helmets is a bright neon yellow, so when it sits inside the black box, that flash of colour becomes part of the design.\u201d<\/p>\n Planning Unit\u2019s packaging for HYDA<\/p>\n Each design decision \u2013 across product, packaging, identity and website \u2013 grew out of a fast, collaborative rhythm between HYDA and Planning Unit. The process stayed light on hierarchy and heavy on exchange, allowing ideas to build momentum as they passed between teams.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve worked with big agencies where you go through four layers before you ever sit down with a designer. For me, that\u2019s yesterday\u2019s model,\u201d says Keeling.<\/p>\n \u201cYou get pitched by one team, handed off to ideators in the next, and then to designers in round four or five. It\u2019s miserable; you lose the original vision.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we created with these guys was the opposite \u2013 a forum where ideas were shared openly, and whenever something clicked, we all knew instantly, \u2018That\u2019s it,\u2019 and ran with it.\u201d<\/p>\n That agile, shared process has resulted in a brand that has resonated immediately.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a total slam dunk \u2013 the investors loved it, the athletes started wearing it, and influencers came on board fast,\u201d says Keeling. \u201cEven high-end partners reached out after seeing the site and the product. That kind of reaction doesn\u2019t happen without a brand that is doing its job.\u201d<\/p>\n The HYDA wordmark, seen alongside the mark for Coanda, the latest helmet line
\nhttps:\/\/d3faj0w6aqatyx.cloudfront.net\/uploads\/2025\/10\/PlanningUnit-HYDA-003-D.mp4<\/a>\n<\/div>\n
\nThe trident motif, as seen on the helmets
\nHYDA\u2019s product line, seen on the website
\nThe \u201cshelter-shaped \u2018A’\u201d appears through the brand\u2019s typography<\/p>\n