The Lowdown

Having developed a comprehensive Master Plan and Blueprint in hand, Outdoors Great Southern and its project partners were seeking to engage a talented agency to assist with the branding and visual identity of the Great Southern Adventure Trails.

With a need to be both well recognised and distinguished from the plethora of trails across the state, the outcome needed to encourage both local community and visitor engagement.

Uniquely, the trails traverse both terrestrial and aquatic, providing a diverse range of offerings to a wide market segment.

This project had a number of considerations including a broad stakeholder group which included the traditional owners of the land.

Visually, it needed to stand out in both the landscape as well as when working collaboratively with other brandmarks. Execution of the brand would be critical and the design’s ability to function in a highly flexible manner was an important part of the brief.

As part of our process, we took a close look at the impact of the name on the overall brand positioning. What resonated most with us throughout the Discovery process, was this deep connection to country and the opportunity for this project to be a catalyst to the coming together of everyone.

This was evident within the Blueprint and continued to surface throughout the face to face session, leading us to 3 ket words:.

Connection

Songlines

Breath

In analysing our approach to the graphical representation of this project, it became more and more evident to us that ‘Adventure’ was conjuring up the wrong connotations. While we all appreciate the context of Adventure when it comes to exploring this incredible part of the world, it does not resonate with the authenticity required to respect these ancient songlines and the connection that we seek to create within visitors to the region.

As such, we went about exploring a new name which would better position the project as an overarching body for all the trails, telling a story of what to expect and providing a platform to work with a brandmark which would lay the foundation for the communication of this network of ‘tracks and trails’ throughout the Great Southern.

On presentation of the name and brand, we were deeply appreciative of how it was received by the traditional owners who expressed that they felt heard and that the brand truly resonated with them.

Unfortunately, the project was delayed due to extraneous circumstances and after a number of years, the peak body was closed and this project never saw the light of day.

However, we chose to develop this case study to demonstrate the work, of which we are incredibly proud.