BRANDING
What started as the Northern Frost Festival quickly transformed into the Northern Elves Festival after multiple test subjects mentioned that “Frost” felt too cold - not something they would drive more than 5 minutes for.
A holiday inspired event to enhance community collaboration and promote tourism
European Christmas markets attract tourism from all over the world.
Which brought me to this question:
How can design influence tourism & community growth?
That question simmered into an endeavor to re-think the branding of a small town’s holiday festivities and agenda.
With the targetted goal being to increase tourism and capitalize on holiday influence, I decided to design a collaborative festival brand and website that hugs all winter events leading up to the new year ; highlighting the culture, cuisine, craft, and community of a small town in the north woods (U.P.) of Michigan.
UNDERSTANDING
THE CLIENT
Northern Elves Festival is intended to attract local and non-local community members; promoting tourism from the midwest regions within a four hour radius of Ironwood, Michigan.
In addition to living online, this event will be implemented as an experimental event in the downtown of Ironwood, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula beginning the week of December 1st, 2018 and ending on January 13th, 2019.
*(Approved by the Ironwood Chamber of Commerce, the City of Ironwood, the Ironwood Development & Tourism Counsel)
= Northern Elves (NoEl)
What started as the Northern Frost Festival quickly transformed into the Northern Elves Festival after multiple test subjects mentioned that “Frost” felt too cold - not something they would drive more than 5 minutes for.
A minimal palette with tranquil whites, retro greens, and playful reds to balance Classic Holiday style with Fresh Vibrance.
Highlighting historic landmarks in the area through vector illustration.
To be used on website banners, social media banners, web ads, and as background accents during event promotion.
Originally the plan was to design a map for the event. After meeting with multiple organizations within Gogebic County, an event calendar and map was already in progress. Rather than doubling up on that front, I thought it more benefitial for the community to use the iconography created for the Map to create event posters to visually communicate the event locations emphasising the presence of the town's historic landmarks.
A WEBSITE
IS BORN
Sketch book | Sharpies | In Person Networking | Outdoor Lights | Ladder | Drill | Wire | Zip Ties | Skis | 1oz Cups w/ Lids | Stamps | Cardstock | Printers | Goose Neck Trailer | Santa Suites | Cider | Loud-Speaker | Cash Pouch | Jingle Bells | Loud Speaker | Meetings, Meetings, & More Meetings...
Adobe Creative Cloud | CMS | Hosting | Domain | File Manager | Instagram | DSLR Camera | iPhone | Google Chrome | Stripe | Scanner
NO FLUFF
JUST FACT
As this project evolved, the Ironwood Chamber of Commerce made a motion to adapt the festival as a “re-branding” for their “Jack Frost Festival” to be implemented in 2019. Local community members have been a key component to making this happen.
Reaching out to past colleagues and design contacts weighed heavily on perspective of aesthetics and heirarchy in deliverables.
MEATHODS BEHIND
THE MADNESS
All research and conceptual design components for this project can be viewed on Google drive by clicking here.