From Virgin Cruises to Virgin Voyages.

Virgin Voyages is a cruise line headquartered in Plantation, Florida, and run as a joint venture between the Virgin Group and the investment firm Bain Capital. English Wikipedia traces the idea to 2011, when Nirmal Saverimuttu, a Virgin Group executive, and Tom McAlpin sketched out a cruise line under the Virgin umbrella, with Bain Capital later joining as lead investor.

The line was announced on 4 December 2014, under a different name. English Wikipedia says the Virgin Group announced the creation of Virgin Cruises, with McAlpin as president and chief executive and a headquarters planned for the Miami and Fort Lauderdale area. On 23 June 2015 Virgin signed a letter of intent with the Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri for three ships.

The present name dates from 18 October 2016. English Wikipedia records that on the day the contract for the three ships was finalised, Virgin Cruises became Virgin Voyages. The company later announced a terminal at PortMiami, known as Terminal V, and a beach club on the Bahamian island of Bimini.

The ships took shape in Italy. Cruise Industry News published external renderings on 31 October 2017 and reported then that the voyages would be for guests aged 18 and over, with no children allowed. The same report noted that the company refers to its passengers as “Sailors”, a word that runs through its later announcements. On 20 July 2018, at a steel-cutting ceremony for the second ship at Fincantieri’s Sestri Ponente yard in Genoa, Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson and McAlpin revealed the name of the first ship: Scarlet Lady.

The launch dates moved. English Wikipedia says the maiden voyage of Scarlet Lady had been scheduled for 1 April 2020 and was postponed, and that the first sailing with paying guests left Portsmouth on 6 August 2021, on UK-only itineraries, before the ship moved to PortMiami in October 2021. Sister ships followed: Valiant Lady began sailing in 2022, Resilient Lady arrived in Sydney in December 2023, and Brilliant Lady joined the fleet in September 2025, with a maiden voyage from New York to Bermuda, according to English Wikipedia.

A mermaid at the bow, a red logo at the stern.

The figure at the centre of the Virgin Voyages identity is a mermaid. In its statement released with the first renderings in October 2017, quoted by Cruise Industry News, the company said that a mermaid guide adorned the hull, inspired by the traditional bows of old ships, and described her as the ship’s muse and the feminine spirit of the voyage. The same statement said the livery was designed with “the glitter and glam of a yacht”.

The first mermaid has a long Virgin history. Virgin Voyages says on its own blog that the “leading lady” on the Scarlet Lady livery was designed by the artist Toby Tinsley, and that her likeness also appears on Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Australia aircraft and on the Virgin Galactic spaceline, here reworked as a mermaid. The ship name has the same root: Cruise Industry News reported on 20 July 2018 that Scarlet Lady was inspired by the name of one of the early aircraft of sister company Virgin Atlantic, and quoted the company saying that the figurehead takes on a role historically held by goddesses, important women and mermaid figures.

Each later ship has its own mermaid. On 21 July 2021 Cruise Industry News reported that the mermaid for Valiant Lady had been created by the artist Hillary Wilson, whose background in classical art and medical drawing shaped the design, and that the company called its mermaids its “leading ladies”, an important symbol for the brand meant to keep guests safe on their voyage.

The ship names follow one formula: an adjective and the word Lady. When the fourth ship was named on 25 April 2022, Cruise Industry News quoted the company explaining that Scarlet Lady honoured one of Virgin Atlantic’s flagship aircraft, that Valiant Lady and Resilient Lady celebrated “strong, fierce, and independent” spirits, and that Brilliant was chosen for its double meaning of radiance and intelligence.

Colour does the rest of the work. English Wikipedia says the ships use a stern design that gives the red Virgin logo as much visibility as possible. Inside, the same red appears in the spaces themselves: Cruise Industry News reported on 16 May 2018 that the raised jogging track of The Athletic Club, designed by Concrete Amsterdam, was rendered in what the company called a shade of Virgin signature red.

Cruise identities.

Once a guest is on board, a cruise line’s identity moves from the outside of the ship to the inside, and much of it is carried by wayfinding. Deck numbers at the lift lobbies, the arrows that point fore and aft, the plaques beside each restaurant door and the cabin numbers along a long corridor all have to be read quickly, often by people who are still finding their sea legs. A line can handle this with a small set of fixed choices: one typeface for signs, one way of writing deck names, and a colour or a pictogram for each zone. The daily programme slipped under the cabin door, the key card and the menu cards repeat the same choices in print, so that the ship reads as one place rather than a set of separate venues.

The identity also travels away from the ship. At each port call, the gangway and its awning, the tent or desk on the quay, the shore-excursion paddles held up by guides and the boards on waiting coaches show the line’s name to people who may never board. Smaller craft carry it too: the tenders that shuttle guests to a pier and, on expedition voyages, the inflatable boats used for landings can wear the line’s colours and a number. Where a line runs an expedition sub-brand beside its ocean fleet, the choice between a separate name, a shared prefix or a single word added to the parent name decides how far those small boats, parkas and field guides look like the rest of the family.

A ship designed by many hands.

Virgin Voyages built its ships with a group of outside designers rather than a single house style. In the May 2018 report, Cruise Industry News quoted Dee Cooper, then senior vice president of design, saying the company chose its design firms because of earlier work it loved. The report credited Tom Dixon with a Mexican restaurant and a VIP area, Roman and Williams with The Manor nightclub and The Dock outdoor space, and Concrete Amsterdam with The Athletic Club, and quoted the company’s aim of a “ship of contrasts”, part refined and part casual, with nods to Virgin’s British heritage.

Cabins followed the same approach. Cruise Industry News reported on 31 January 2019 that the Scarlet Lady cabin layout was designed by PearsonLloyd with the Virgin Voyages design team, around a convertible bed called the Seabed, made by Walter Knoll in Germany, and that every terrace would have a custom-designed hammock. The top suites were named RockStar Suites.

Even the crew uniforms were part of the identity. On 6 October 2021 Cruise Industry News reported that the British fashion designer Gareth Pugh had created the crew collection for Scarlet Lady, working with Design Collective by Cintas. The company said the collection dropped epaulets, ties and waistcoats, and mixed sharp tailoring with relaxed tunic shirts that referenced the early days of British punk.

Together these pieces form a consistent vocabulary. Passengers are Sailors, ships are Ladies, each Lady has a mermaid drawn by a named artist, and the Virgin red marks the stern and parts of the interior. The adults-only policy reported in 2017 applies across the fleet.

For a design guide, Virgin Voyages shows how a parent brand’s colour and a single recurring figure can carry across a fleet while each ship gets its own name and its own mermaid. Compare Royal Caribbean, another line sailing from Miami, and Celebrity Cruises, a sister line in this series. For this guide we use scarlet, ink and pearl with a sans, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

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