Case study
Calon Surf: a brand and a website for a surf coach in Lombok
A coach with great photos and no brand of his own got an identity that feels like Lombok, and a site that brings him students.
Surf coachLombok, IndonesiaSince 2023calonsurflombok.com(opens in a new tab)
Calon Surf is the surf coaching of Calon, a surf coach at Gerupuk in Lombok, Indonesia. Lucas Cubillos Mialani of Cubilani, a brand and web design studio, designed its brand guidelines, logo and photo style, and built its website, live for about three years. The site explains the lessons and prices and sends visitors to Calon on WhatsApp and Instagram to book. Search and local content come next.
A great coach with great photos, ready for a brand of his own
Calon coaches surfers at Gerupuk, on the south coast of Lombok. I like putting my work where it can make a real difference to a small business, and Calon was exactly that. He knows the spots at Gerupuk better than anyone. He teaches travellers who come to Lombok to surf, from first lessons to coaching for people who already ride.
His first website was a simple one. The next step was a brand and a site that show who Calon is and why people should learn with him. And on Lombok, many coaches compete for the same travellers, while very few make good use of their website.
The main challenge: standing out without another wave logo
You can build a decent website from generic assets, but it won’t stand apart from every other surf school. So I added brand guidelines to the project before the site: a few basic assets the website could use everywhere, so it shows what learning with Calon actually feels like. I’m glad I made that call; it is why the site has a personality and not a template’s.
A brand that feels like Lombok, then a site built from it
Branding: a surf fin inside the C
The name carries the logo. A wave is the most predictable choice, so the C holds a surf fin instead, pointing up, set in a playful, sporty typeface that matches the young, warm feel of Lombok. The colour palette comes from the island and from Gerupuk, the beach where Calon teaches.
The name itself is a small game. Calon is pronounced “Chalon”, which travellers find hard to say, so many of them call him Alon, and the site plays along: its buttons say “Contact Alon” and the site explains why. The brand keeps Calon: the C is what holds the fin, and as a name it is unique and easy to write.
- #F9F9F2
- #E7E7CF
- #18130E
- #FF7F51
- #CB5C44
- #1DC1B6
- #BADCB8
Branding services, planned with the website
Website: who he is, what it costs, and one tap to message him
Surf lessons depend on the ocean and the forecast, so a booking calendar would only get in the way: sessions are planned with Calon directly, by message. I wrote the site’s words and planned its flow around that: who Calon is, what he teaches and for how much, the questions people ask first, and clear buttons on every section to message him on WhatsApp or Instagram, ask for a quote or plan the next session.
Brand assets: his own photos, with a 90s surf-magazine look
Calon’s biggest asset was his own photography, from lessons and sessions around the spots. Photos today are bright and saturated, so I treated them to feel like a 90s surf magazine: softer, warmer colours (not sepia), a paper and plastic scratch texture, and colour grading from that era. The same look carries through the website and onto the T-shirts.
From a simple site to one of the main ways new students reach him
| Before | After (live since about 2023) | |
|---|---|---|
| Brand | No logo or brand of its own | A logo with a surf fin in the C, a palette from Lombok, a typeface and a photo style |
| Website | A simple site | A branded site: who Calon is, the lessons and prices, the questions people ask, and buttons to message him |
| Booking | A general contact | WhatsApp and Instagram on every section, to ask for a quote or plan a session |
Students often compliment Calon on the site, and he tells me it has become one of the main ways new students reach him.
Ongoing: search and local content next
Next comes a little search work and content about how the classes go and what’s happening at the spots. Very few surf coaches in the area use their website and search well, so there is real room: the aim is to improve Calon’s chances on Google and in AI answers when travellers look for surf lessons in Lombok. The setup is the first step; the best results come from ongoing work.
A small business with a big personality starts with a free 30-minute call
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