HARRISONBURG
REBRAND DESIGN
BRAND DESIGN
For this project, I worked with the director of tourism for the city of Harrisonburg in order to design a new logo and brand identity that more closely aligns with the city personality and identity than the current logo. The final branding will be used on signage, merchandise, and other tourism needs.
The goal of this project was to create a new logo and brand for the Harrisonburg tourism department. The new brand and logo should reflect Harrisonburg’s culture, community, and surroundings in a way that draws travelers to Harrisonburg. The branding should be able to be used on merchandise and signage. The current branding and logo doesn’t properly represent Harrisonburg, nor does it work effectively on merchandise items. The tourism department is looking for a logo that can increase their sales and awareness of the town.
One of the biggest challenges of the project was creating a logo mark that represented the entire community. Harrisonburg is diverse with many different groups of people, which is difficult to encompass in one logo mark. Another challenge was representing the city of Harrisonburg, without representing just one aspect of it. The logo needs to feel like Harrisonburg as a whole.
This project began with a tour of downtown Harrisonburg and meeting with the director of tourism. From there, I developed 15 sketches that could be used as the logo. After narrowing it down to just 5, I re-crafted my logos on grid paper for proper proportions and balance. After that, I did various type and color studies on each of the 5 logos. After picking the strongest logo with the strongest type and color combination, I began incorporating my logo onto various merchandise items through mockups. The project concluded with a 10 minute presentation to the director of tourism to get feedback.
The result?
The intended result for this project was to create a new logo and brand that the Harrisonburg tourism department could use. After speaking with the director, she recommended my logo be used for Rockingham tourism, as opposed to Harrisonburg, as it strongly represented the agricultural aspect of Rockingham county. She passed my logo along to their department. For my personal results, this project strengthened my skills and understanding in brand design. This included skills such as web usage, proper space, and other often over-looked details.