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| The 2018/19 Niagara Parks Visitor Guide, with minimalist, die-cut cover. |
Something I love working on with my team at Niagara Parks, our annual Visitor Guide publication.
Reintroduced as a free collectible at Niagara Parks sites in 2014, this guide is meant to be equal parts information guide, brand story-telling opportunity and promotional vehicle. In addition to distributing free throughout Niagara Parks, they can also be picked up at Ontario Travel Information Centres throughout the province, and we do a large inserted drop through a number of US newspapers such as the New York Times and Boston Globe, to their respective cities.
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| Our 2016/17 Visitor Guide, with adult colouring book cover by Chelsea Peters Illustration |
When the team first started working on these annually in 2015, we saw it as a great opportunity to do something different, if not disruptive. Working in the highly photographic travel/tourism industry, and with one of Canada's most photogenic destinations, we have consistently taken the approach to have more minimalist covers, with the goal to stand out on Tourism Info Centre shelves where splash images would otherwise blend in like white-noise.
Additionally, though print vehicles may seem somewhat outdated in the age of digital media, especially with "competing" guides often looking like flimsy magazines, laden with ads, the goal with ours has always been to make it feel as though it's something you want to touch, leaf through, and even collect year after year. To achieve this we typically include no ads, with the exception of our sister provincial agencies, prioritize user-generated content for images, include interactive elements that reinforce the brand (such as site-sticker collection and note pages), and ensure the guide has a spine rather than stapled (print-nerd territory now). It's classic "medium is the message," a creatively, uniquely designed, high quality guide speaks the same to the brand as we seek to better establish it (more on that in a later post).
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| 2017/18 "Travel Journal" |
As said, we love pushing the boundaries of its design and travellers' expectations for what a destination's guide book can be. Past guides have included adult colouring book covers, or designed like a beat-up travel journal to reinforce exploring Canada during its 150 celebrations (see pics above).
Among the many cool things we did with it this year, and coinciding with the launch of the new brand, was including four specially designed "map art" pages. Featuring creative interpretations of what Niagara Parks is from Canadian artists both local and farther out. All connected to the cover which depicts our actual geographic footprint as a provincial agency, and "56 km outdoor adventure museum" along the Niagara River.
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| Chelsea Peters Illustration |
Grab one, or let us know if you want one mailed to you (yes, we do deliver).
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| Night Shift Studios |
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| ILikeMaps |
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| Shaun O'Melia Design |
