Mark
Designing for Change
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Year of the Tundra: Brand Identity

Rocky Mountain National Park

Easy access to alpine tundra—"the land above the trees"—is the most distinct feature of Rocky Mountain National Park. Trail Ridge Road, the highest road in any national park, transports you to this realm of open sky where you'll find tiny but brilliant flowers and a harsh climate.

While the plants that call the alpine tundra home are well-adapted to the extreme environment, there’s something they’re not well-adapted to: human trampling. Repeated footsteps can quickly destroy tundra plants, allowing now-exposed soil to blow away. Recovery may take hundreds of years. As visitation to Rocky continues to grow (4.6 million visitors in 2019), the alpine tundra on Trail Ridge is receiving more visitors, more footsteps, and more damage.

To address this challenge, we’re launching the Year of the Tundra campaign. Through infrastructure and regulatory changes and targeted messaging, this campaign seeks to reduce damage to Rocky’s alpine tundra and increase the public’s appreciation of and desire to protect this incredible biome in Rocky and around the world.

Key to this campaign is widespread public messaging through print (park newspaper, interpretive and regulatory signs) and digital (park website, social media) media using strong, consistent branding. And that’s where you come in! Your mission: to create an innovative, eye-catching mark that conveys the core message of this campaign and works in any and every media setting.


Key Messages and Themes:

We want visitors to join us as Tundra Guardians!

Don’t Trample the Tundra!

Do not step on tundra plants and flowers. The tundra is very sensitive to footsteps.

Stay on paved trails in all Tundra Closures. (Tundra Closures are areas of highest use along Trail Ridge Road).

Do not step off the trail for any reason.


Must Haves:

Logo must work at any size, digital and print.

Logo must somehow encapsulate the key message:  don’t trample the tundra.

All work must be scientifically accurate and pass approval by Rocky Mountain National Park media, interpretation, and natural resources staff.


Deliverables:

A logo at multiple sizes with accompanying optional tagline.

A wayside (informational graphic/illustration sign) design that will be placed at Tundra Closure trailheads.

A package of memes to share on Rocky’s website and social media to promote the campaign.


Timeline:

TUE MAR 31                  
Project Kickoff with Rocky on Zoom:  https://kansas.zoom.us/j/567047930

THU APR 02                  
3 Initial Concept Moodboards (sketches are welcome too :) to present to Jeremy at 11:30am on Zoom: https://kansas.zoom.us/j/864484263

Think beyond logo as well…information graphics/illustration style (that you can execute) and social media campaigns. Example: https://huntergatherer.net/project/greenyc/

TUE APR 07                  
25 logo sketches of each concept (75 total) to post to Google Drive by 11:30am. Pencil or computer or both. Please number each sketch so folks can pick ones that are working best.

THU APR 09                  
Individual Zoom Meetings with Jeremy to narrow down to two final directions for refinement. Push those out to various lockups, colorways, and any additional support graphics. 

TUE APR 14                  
Pdf presentations (design these presentations) to Rocky for feedback on which direction to finalize.

Pick at least 3 versions to show. Show variety of type lockups, colorways and any graphics that could be used in the toolkit. Here are some examples presentation boards and to model yours after: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/4jdgoxyfnwe1vxb/AAAr_3Y0McL7iZDW1xupLvzoa?dl=0


THU APR 16                  
Worktime, refinements, sketches for Wayside and Social Media Campaign Concepts.

TUE APR 21                  
Zoom Meeting with Jeremy 

THU APR 23                  
Zoom check in with Rocky on finalized brand identity, Wayside and Social Media Mockups

TUE APR 28                  
Individual Zoom Meetings 

THU APR 30                  
Work time and Refinement

TUE MAY 05                  
Final Presentation to Rocky (logo + kit of parts, Wayside and Social Media Campaign)