Storytelling
Put Your Reader First
A thoughtful reorganization of information and a taut design can reinvent your brand.
Florida’s Tampa Bay Beaches region is beautiful, scenic in every way. Majestic, white-sand shorelines. Perfect sunsets. A dream-come-true vacation, wedding destination with all the amenities. Seems obvious the area’s annual visitors guide would be just as vibrant, full of breathtaking images and content connecting readers to the landscape. But it wasn’t.
In 2015, Octane Design helped the Tampa Bay Beaches Chamber of Commerce re-envision and redesign their print visitors guide into something beyond pages full of laundry lists of members and services.
Immediately applying lessons learned from producing the Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau’s award-winning visitors guide, Visit Detroit, we began by reorganizing content and creating new sections that would help familiarize and orientate potential visitors with the Tampa Bay Beaches Region, including its beaches, towns, must-sees and transportation options. We incorporated maps and simple geographic-themed illustrations, knowing readers want more context in terms of an area’s topography and destination plot points. We also collaborated with local photographers to provide vibrant destination imagery as well as photos of area-specific novelties, such as beach-access signs, that act as travel aids to visitors. Using new sets of categories and subheads, we also broke up the member listings and services for easier searching and scanning.
We provided an all-in-one solution for the Tampa Bay Beaches Chamber of Commerce, not only producing the magazine, but by creating their ad sales media kit, as well.
The entire project — completely designed, developed and approved remotely — launched successfully in just three months in winter/spring 2015. The 2015 Tampa Bay Beaches Visitors Guide went on to win accolades from The Florida Association of Chamber Professionals in the CVB Communications/Marketing Materials category.
View the online edition of The Tampa Bay Visitors Guide.