Italic Pixel Design: Thinking | Strategy

Hopscotch Festival
The Hopscotch Festival goal is to showcase to the world's finest whiskies and premium beers. Started in 1996 by the Hopscotch production group. Vancouver is a volitile place for festivals due to tight government controls and occasional fickle community support. The longevity of Hopscotch (in 2006 it celebrated it's 10th year) is testimony to the unique place that Hopscotch holds in Vancouver.

Project Profile
Hopscotch Productions wanted to leverage the 10th year anniversary of the event. What started out as a reworking of some minor elements ended up in a complete overhaul of the festivals visual identity.

Thinking
We felt that despite the name Hopscotch being recognisable, the visual identity of the festival was not.

The brand needed to carry the original concepts of the festival - as a place to sample both whisky and premium beer. It needed to be familiar and yet fresh.

End goal usage requirements were also factored in the concept stage. The logo would appear in various media, be rendered in pantone, 4 colour, black and white processes, as well as in internet applications. We decided early on to use a 3 colour pallette for not only the logo, but all the the marketing materials. This would also help reduce printing costs.

We coined the call to action "Excite Your Senses" to help tie in all the facets of the festival ie the seminars, the grand tasting hall, and the food pairing dinners.

Strategy
Upon looking at the marketing plan for the festival, we recognised a need to set the following project goals:

• Revitalize the Hopscotch Visual Identity
• Increase recognition for the festival and attract a wider audience
• Develop a set of marketing materials to publicise the festival experience
• Rebuild the website with new architecture and design so that it acted as a hub for the event

The printed materials were designed to drive the consumers to the festival website - which became an essential component of the brand overhaul.

The information on the website had to be reorganized so that exhibitors, agents and festival attendees could quickly navigate to their respective sections. The site architecture was redefined with site maps and element maps. The website redesign included use of CTA (call to action) to help direct traffic on the site. They could also be used to highlight specific events and offers.

Design
The new logomark followed it's roots as a label - in this case a psuedo beer and whisky label. The logotype was the centrepeice of the logo - the word "Hopscotch" being one of the festival's greatest assets. A creative solution of having the Vancouver skyline appear in the logo as well as a subtle reordering of information allowed a seemless transition of the older mark to the new one.

Use of the skyline, also allowed the organizers flexibility to take the brand beyond Vancouver's shores with a tweak of the cityscape. The Hopscotch brand now had the potential to be interprovincial and international.

The logo treatment and use of a vibrant amber background instantly tied all the marketing materials (post cards, brochure, posters, connosuer booklet, website) together. It became instantly recognisable that it was Hopscotch time.

Results
The increased brand awareness drove an unprecedented xxxxx unique visitors to the Hopscotch website. This ramped up considerably as the event approached - the feature event - The Grand Tasting Hall. The event was an unprecendented sell out prior to festival night. Furthermore, all 7 satellite events were sold out.

"QUOTE FROM SHELLEY