Client
Ski Hidden Valley
Project
Brand update, trademark and website
The Story
Hidden Valley Resort offers a unique opportunity for people of all ages to experience winter activities.
Offering modern facilities, equipment, and extensive programs—Hidden Valley needed to evolve their visual identity with a modern and energetic online presence to showcase the resort while providing a fun and intuitive promotional platform for their programs.
The initial goal for this project was to refresh and modernize the Hidden Valley Resort visual identity and then strategically extend the various design components to maximize the visual impact of the online presence. The visual identity redesign consisted of evolving the existing logo to bolster the credibility of the new identity and then leveraging the existing brand equity. The result was a clean and modern identity that clearly reflected the progressive nature of the resort, but stayed true to the original “family” and “wholesome” values.
The result is a clean, easy to navigate website that includes interesting dynamic features such as; live weather data, web cam images, program information, live snow and grooming reports, and image galleries. Stealing some vernacular from the slopes, the proper term in describing the new website: “sick.”
Services Required
- Brand Development
- Possibly one of the most important design related decisions in the communications arena. This process requires a very articulate understanding of your organization and audience. Although this development process is often client-initiated as a standalone project, results are more succinct when coupled with more extensive brand research, development and planning. Corporate identity design is often mistakenly isolated as a “logo.” Although the development of a solid and memorable logo or trademark is an important aspect of this process, it is only one aspect in the myriad of elements and brand collateral that can be used to control your organizations’ perceived personality. Our approach to identity design is multi-faceted and sets the tone for all other elements that follow in the future. For example; vehicle lettering, corporate memos, advertising, annual reports and public announcements are all developed according to the direction and directives set forth in the corporate identity—which in turn is developed according to the mandates of the brand and content strategy.
- Brand & Content Strategy
- No matter how good your product or the experience you offer, if you’re speaking the wrong language or the claim you make is wrong for the audience; all is lost. We can help you define your audience and tailor your communications to deliver results that engage your audience and add weight and credibility to your brand promise.
- Content Management Systems
- When you need your website information to be flexible, we can implement our easy-to-use, content management system (CMS). These systems allow you to instantly update your website content yourself. Each website is built with leading web technologies such as XHTML, CSS, PHP, and Javascript incorporating a MySQL database on the backend. With our custom CMS integrated into your website, you will have all of the control you need (often no training necessary) to update any areas of your website that you need to. Your content will be dynamic, up-to-date, and always relevant. We do not use “off the shelf” top-heavy CMS systems that are bloated and complicated for you to use. Each system is custom programmed by our in-house staff to suit your specific needs.
- Copywriting & Content Strategy
- The user experience is only as good as the content delivered. Nothing draws and retains online visitors better than engaging, well crafted content. Photo and video shoots, image sourcing, graphics production, and copywriting are a few ways we help clients develop on-brand website experiences that build users’ trust and loyalty.
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Strategy
- Each website that we build is structurally optimized for strong search engine placement, making it easy for Google and other search engines to discover and index your content. The most effective way to achieve great positioning in a search result is by producing relevant content that is properly organized (so as to be meaningful for the search engines) and delivering that content using industry best practices. We offer supplemental SEO services that will enhance the visibility of your website and expose your organization to a larger audience.
- Planning the User Experience
- From simple print literature to advanced interactive training platforms, we plan and design from the mindset of the end user. Our goal is to always maximize the qualitative experience your audience has with the products that we develop. From complex software navigation systems to the layout and structure of a textbook, we take great pride creating intuitive meaning in complicated or non-linear concepts. Turning the complicated into simplicity is a design process that happens early in the planning stages of the project. Managing projects with this end-goal in mind results in a positive and memorable experience for your audience.
