Marathon Leisure

The client

Marathon Leisure is a trade-only marine distributor supplying leading marine brands to the industry since 1992. With a vast and continually expanding product range, its catalogue serves as a critical sales and reference tool for customers.

Over time, the catalogue had grown to include content from a wide variety of suppliers, each with their own design styles, layouts and brand guidelines. While comprehensive, this resulted in a publication that lacked consistency and a clear overarching identity.

The brief

Marathon Leisure approached us to reimagine its 1,000+ page catalogue with the aim of creating a more cohesive and clearly structured publication. The catalogue needed to better reflect the scale, professionalism and market position of the business, while still respecting the individuality and requirements of each supplier.

The challenge was to bring clarity and consistency to a complex document without compromising the integrity of existing supplier content.

Our approach

We structured the project around creating a robust, flexible design system that could bring consistency to a highly complex catalogue while remaining adaptable to a wide range of supplier content.

A mock-up showing a spread of the Marathon Leisure catalogue.

Establishing consistency

A comprehensive set of paragraph, typographic and layout styles was developed to be applied throughout the entire catalogue. This created a clear visual hierarchy, improved readability and ensured consistency across all sections.

A mock-up showing the contents page of the Marathon Leisure catalogue.

Improving navigation

The catalogue was organised into 12 clearly defined sections, each supported by colour-coded tabbing. This intuitive structure allows customers to quickly locate product categories and navigate the catalogue more efficiently.

A mock-up showing a spread of the Marathon Leisure catalogue that demonstrates the individuality that was able to be kept for suppliers.

Designing for flexibility

The design system was built to adapt seamlessly to a wide range of product categories, technical information, imagery and brand assets. This ensured each supplier’s products could retain their individuality while aligning with the overall Marathon Leisure identity.

A mock-up showing a spread of the clear structure and consistent layouts of the Marathon Leisure catalogue.

Enhancing usability

Clear structure and consistent layouts were prioritised to improve usability, making the catalogue easier to reference and use as a day-to-day sales resource.

Results & next steps

The finished catalogue presents a strong, confident and unified presence for Marathon Leisure. The streamlined design reinforces the brand while giving equal prominence to the wide range of products and suppliers represented.

Looking ahead, the new design framework provides a scalable and efficient system for future updates. New editions can now be produced with consistency and ease, ensuring the catalogue remains a clear, reliable and user-friendly resource for customers.

Make complex content simple

Our work in action

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JRP Catalogue design

We designed JRP’s product catalogue with clear navigation, consistency and clear calls to action to boost customer experience and sales.

Bring clarity to complex content

If your organisation manages large, information-heavy publications that need to balance consistency with flexibility, we can help. From catalogues and technical documents to sales tools and reference guides, we design robust systems that improve usability, strengthen your brand and scale with your business.

Let’s turn complex content into a clear, confident resource.

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