Duotone DRIVEN Magazine No.04

↗ Panel-Design Our claim is not only to push the performance of a kite but also the design. Stoke, Inspiration, impression, and emotion - we want to radiate all this in the kite design. Our products should put a smile on our customers’ faces with a design to match their performance. We also achieve this with our panel design. A plain, single- colored product can quickly appear unemotional and non-technical. An interesting design, on the other hand, creates a completely different effect. While the basic shape of the kite with its vertical seams in the direction of flight is specified by the kite designer, we design everything else. Form, pattern, visual shape, color. As a brand with performance leadership, we also want to lead in visual design. Sometimes, this leads to a more progressive design. This is, of course, much more elaborate and complex than a single-colored kite – also in terms of cutting in production. Panel designs in three different cuts for seven kite models in different color combinations require very demanding production and planning operations and skills. Of course, we try an evolution of our design every year. We do this carefully: One year, we show something new, and the following year a facelift of it, before something new follows. After all, everything takes a while until it has arrived on the market and is understood. We have been steadily increasing the complexity of the panel design for a few years now. This started with sewn-in Duotone logos in 2020, and in the following years, the design of our kites has become more and more expressive. But I think we’ve reached a peak with the new 2024 collection. The panel design of our new kites will be more angular overall, a little harder, with fewer curves, but generally following the deconstructive idea in coloring. We design the Duotone logo clearly in one color. But not only the logo, but also the panel design should always be characteristic of the Duotone brand to ensure the best possible brand recognition. D R I V E N 59 K I T E D E S I G N