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Manufacturing
DUI & OMS
Diving Unlimited International and Ocean Management Systems, 2016 to 2018. As marketing manager for both brands, Lauren rebuilt their product photography, then the print guides and packaging that used it.
The challenge
Diving Unlimited International makes drysuits in San Diego. Ocean Management Systems makes wings, harnesses, regulators, masks and fins. DUI acquired OMS in 2014 with European partner BtS Europa and sold the brand across North America.
Both brands had a dated look, and lifting it was a core part of the marketing manager’s job.
The approach
The rebrand ran through the products themselves. New photography came first, then guides built on it, with every channel drawing from the same files.
A studio shoot started in March 2017 and ran in numbered rounds. Lauren directed it, Steve Whalen shot it, and Lauren retouched the frames into layered files named by product and part number. By the end of 2017 the library covered 313 part numbers across DUI and OMS.
Round 1, March 2017
Drag across a raw studio frame and the finished file made from it. Both sit on the same canvas, so the product never moves. Only the tag, stand, strings and backdrop change.
The drysuits
DUI drysuits went through the same shoot in September 2017. Each suit was photographed on a model for fit and shot again as a clean cutout for the Gear Guide and the shop.
Build a rig
The guide’s idea, made clickable. Choose a harness, then cylinders, then an air cell, and the builder only offers combinations the guide and the OMS manual support. Each part is its own DUI photo, shown side by side and never pasted together.
Concept. Built from the 2017 shoot and the OMS Gear Guide’s Theory of Modularity.
The Gear Guide
The 2018 Gear Guide was the first DUI and OMS catalog with quality product photography throughout. Its 100 pages put the DUI drysuit line and the OMS range of harnesses, wings, regulators, masks, fins and accessories into one book.
Web, packaging and shows
The photography also went into Lauren’s concept for the OMS website, a Slipstream fins product page from February 2017. Lauren designed the OMS drysuit box (three versions, May 2017), the OMS hang tag concepts (June 2017) and the DUI show banner for ADEX (March 2017), all carrying the same topographic line art.
The result
One product library fed the DUI and OMS catalog, the Gear Guide and the online shop at dui-online.com, where sales grew about 300%.
Strategic Designs takes time to understand your objectives first, then meets them with practical solutions that improve results.
Robin JacowayGM, Ocean Management Systems
Product photography and print work shown belong to Diving Unlimited International and Ocean Management Systems and appear with permission.