Every designer will have their own way of putting forward a new concept - there are the principal elements of the new design, and other sections that are open to further development later date – perhaps with the help of a naval architect or other designers. But I came across an interesting idea which could help new designs gain a little more traction in the marketplace.

Recently, British naval architecture studio Laurent Giles, announced that it has begun doing some conceptual design work to, “build a technical story behind a concept,” in the words of Managing Director, David Lewis. What they’re not trying to do is create the best yacht to put forward to prospective owners, but primarily use the concept as a vehicle to promote their naval architecture capabilities and the new technologies they are working with.

While it may be easier for a naval architect to focus on individual elements of a concept, the idea of building a story behind a new design for designers is something that could really help the market to reflect on client thought processes – or even provide the market with something to really think about beyond aesthetics.

My thoughts are, by delving a little deeper in to a concept and designing from the inside out, or with a focus on a specific region or lifestyle that’s a little bit more exciting than ‘family orientation’, you may end up with something that has a number of practical features, which designing around basic specifications wouldn’t necessarily inspire you to do.

As a recent example, the Superyacht UK Young Designer winner, Dastinas Steponenas, was asked to create a concept based on the Sky Atlantic TV drama ‘Riviera’. But, while this may be a concept designed for fictional characters, the thought process behind the 110m project told an interesting story which resulted in some different aesthetical elements that we haven’t seen before, while grabbing the interest of those even outside of the industry.

So, while it’s important to get the fundamentals of the design correct,having a solid ‘design story’ may be the answer to creating concepts with a bit more gravitas.

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