Brand-And-Web
Queen City Riverboats + Destiny Yacht Charters
One company became two brands, two websites, and a print system, in thirty days. And we don't even sell branding.
Brand-And-Web
Queen City Riverboats + Destiny Yacht Charters
One company became two brands, two websites, and a print system, in thirty days. And we don't even sell branding.
Queen City Riverboats runs a 220-guest paddlewheeler and a 100-guest private yacht, and one brand was selling both to everyone. We split it into Queen City Riverboats (the heritage brand, around the Spirit of Cincinnati) and Destiny Yacht Charters (the escape brand, weddings and corporate events first), designed both identities, built both Next.js websites on Sonor, and produced the print system from the same design tokens. Both sites went live thirty days after the split.
- Brand Identity
- Logo Design
- Web Design
- Next.js Development
- Print Collateral
- Technical SEO
- Online Ticketing
The site
2
Brands, each with its own site
Measured
60
Pages live across both sites
Measured
30
Days from brand split to launch
Measured
6
Print pieces from one design system
Measured
$30.7K
Online cruise tickets this season
Measured
80/80
Seats sold, WEBN fireworks on the Destiny
Measured
18
Quote requests in the first week
Measured
98/100
Lighthouse Performance
Measured
Challenges
What stood in the way
3 problems, and what each one took to clear.
Challenge 01
Problem
One brand was selling two different boats to everyone
A paddlewheeler for reunions and tour groups and a private yacht for weddings shared one homepage, one logo, and one message. The yacht lived as a sub-page of the riverboat site.
Solution
We split the company into two brands with a clear audience each, then built a site and an identity for each one.
Result
Two brands, two sites, each speaking to one buyer. The yacht's old pages redirect to her new home.
Challenge 02
Problem
The buyers could not be more different
The riverboat's buyer skews older and calls. The yacht's buyer is planning a wedding on a phone at night.
Solution
Queen City got bigger type, higher contrast, a static hero, and a phone number as the primary button. Destiny got sunset color, per-occasion pages, and a quote form at the end of each one.
Result
Eighteen quote requests across both sites in the first week after relaunch.
Challenge 03
Problem
Print and web always drift apart
Menus change every season. A brochure printed from a designer's file is out of date by the second cruise.
Solution
We built every print piece in HTML and CSS on the sites' own tokens, and generate the menu book from the sites' menu data.
Result
Six print pieces that match the websites exactly, re-printable in minutes when a menu changes.
Strategy
How the work ran
5 phases, in the order they happened.
Phase 01
Draw the line between the boats
Before any code, we decided what each business is for. The paddlewheeler keeps the heritage, the reunions, the tour groups, and the public cruises. The yacht takes weddings, corporate events, and the nights out. Same dock, same crew, two brands.
- Brand architecture
- Audience split
- Naming (Destiny Yacht Charters revived)
- Experience map: which occasion lives on which site
Phase 02
Two identities
A vintage travel-poster badge, Playfair Display, navy and heritage red for Queen City. A gold-sun emblem with a script wordmark, Outfit, indigo and sunset gold for Destiny. Each palette was checked against its own buyer: higher contrast and bigger type for the riverboat, phone-first sunset color for the yacht.
- Two logo systems
- Two palettes with usage rules
- Type pairings
- Motifs: scalloped awning vs. smooth wave
Phase 03
Two websites
Destiny was forked from the existing codebase with its history intact, then rebuilt around weddings and corporate events with per-occasion quote forms. Queen City was retooled Spirit-first with a static hero, a riverboat history page, and online ticketing. Nine permanent redirects moved the yacht's pages to her new home.
- destinyyachtcharters.com (27 pages)
- queencityriverboats.com retool (33 pages)
- Seven per-occasion quote forms
- Redirect map and sister-boat cross-links
Phase 04
The print system
One-pagers, a bridal piece, the menu book, a two-pocket folder, and business cards, built in HTML and CSS on the same tokens and type as the sites and printed to PDF with bleed. The menu book is generated from the sites' menu data.
- Two one-pagers
- Bridal one-pager
- Eleven-page menu book
- 9x12 folder
- Business cards
Phase 05
Launch and measure
Both sites shipped on August 14, 2026, thirty days after the split, with Lighthouse 100s on accessibility, best practices, and SEO. Sonor tracks the forms, the tickets, and the traffic from day one.
- Netlify deploys
- PageSpeed validation
- Analytics and forms wired through Sonor
- Commerce live with seat counts
Results
What it delivered
4 outcomes: 4 measured.
The numbers
80 of 80 seats
WEBN fireworks sold out on the Destiny
Measured
The yacht's fireworks cruise sold every seat online. The Spirit sailed the same night at 99 of 100.
60 pages
Two sites live in thirty days
Measured
33 pages on Queen City Riverboats and 27 on Destiny Yacht Charters, from brand split to launch.
$30.7K
Online tickets sold this season
Measured
Completed online cruise ticket sales through the site since June 2026, across both boats.
18
Quote requests in the first week
Measured
Across both sites in the seven days after relaunch, with zero spam reaching the inbox.
Tech stack
What it's built with
7 technologies.
Next.js
React
TypeScript
@sonordev/site-kit
Sonor
Netlify
Lighthouse
Services
What we delivered
5 services, and what each one covered.
Service 01
Brand Identity and Logo Design
Two complete identities for one company: a heritage badge and serif system for the paddlewheeler, a sunset emblem and script wordmark for the yacht.
- Brand architecture
- Logo systems
- Palettes with usage rules
- Type pairings
Service 02
Web Design and Next.js Development
Two Next.js sites on @sonordev/site-kit, each designed around one buyer and one job: book the Spirit, or put a date on the yacht.
- Two production sites
- Per-occasion quote forms
- Static, LCP-safe heroes
- Nine-redirect migration
Service 03
Print Collateral
Six print pieces built in HTML and CSS from the same design tokens as the websites, so print and web can't drift.
- One-pagers and bridal piece
- Generated menu book
- Two-pocket folder
- Business cards with bleed
Service 04
Technical SEO
Both sites indexable and structured from launch: sitemaps, schema, a ranking history page, and a wedding-venue page with FAQ schema.
- Sitemaps and canonicals
- FAQ and venue schema
- Managed metadata via Sonor
- Lighthouse SEO 100
Service 05
Online Ticketing and Forms
Public cruises sell through the site with live seat counts; every inquiry routes to the right inbox with the occasion already known.
- Square checkout
- Seat-count inventory
- Routed prospect forms
- Spam-filtered submissions
Project details
What the job was
The particulars of the build, as the record states them.
Industry
Hospitality & Events
Location
Dayton, KY (Cincinnati)
Website
Delivered in
30 days
Launch date
August 14, 2026