NEW MEXICO
-Design | reBranding | Illustration-
Overview
Visit Roswell, New Mexico
The Challenge
Roswell, New Mexico is a city southeast of New Mexico. In 1947, it was rumored that there was a UFO crash in the town, Since then, the town has centered itself around that event, with attractions like the international UFO museum and research center and gift shop, a UFO space walk, restaurants, and chains with an alien theme made specifically for the town. It also has a lot of cultural attractions, a planetarium, and the Mescarlero sand dunes.
The challenge was to redesign the city brand with something new and visually pleasing that will attract tourists and make it stand out from other city designs. For the brand redesign, I would need to create a new logo, wayfinding icons, a new webpage layout design, and a design for a billboard.
Previous Brand
Ideation and Inspiration
For this project my idea was to revamp the brand and since the city is a huge tourist attraction with the alien theme, I found no reason to steer away from that. If anything, I wanted to highlight that theme and dive deeper into the alien theme. I want to play heavy into the image of mystery in a small town, something condensed with a sans serif. The design would also have to be something bright, with greens, glows, and something inside the logo that could be used as an icon that could alone represent the city brand.
Moodboard
For my moodboards, I pulled out images that gave an alien feel to it with big blocky lettering, sharp angled corners or images with extreme curves. I also pulled images from the city that with inspire my design, like the main tourist attractions. I also looked into other city logos I could possibly take inspiration from. As for existing typefaces I could possible manipulate, I liked the kind of 90’s computer, digital, 8-bit type. That to me feels alien.
Sketches
Digital Drafts
Round 1
Round 2
Logos
City Icons
Final Design
Color Logo
City iCONS
Website layout
Black/White Logo
bLACK/wHITE iCONS
Billboard Design
Brand Icon
mOCKUPS
Reflection
Overall, This project was a success and I accomplished what I set out to design. My rebrand of the city plays into the alein theme, with the colors, the typeface, and the alein icons created.
For the final design, I created a logo with a question mark hidden in the “R” to represent the element of mystery. This is my stand along icon that could be used alone and represent the cities’ brand.
The type itself gives the feel of an extraterrestrial, with the main text being handmade and the subtext being called “Aliens and Cows”. The color palette along with the texture both inside the main text, and inside the enclosed diamond gives helps give the alien feel to my design. As for the billboard design, I used an image of the city, the logo, and a tagline I created, being “Experience the Unknown” in hopes to draw in tourists. The small “Welcome to” at the top gives the feel of a basic city sign, but then your hit with this bright, unusual alien design that is completely different from the typical city design.
I also created icons for the city. These icons could be used in many different elements in the city (i.e. maps, wayfinding, clickable icons on the website). My original design for these heavily included the alien. I felt this path was too childish and cartoonish. I went a different direction, using silhouettes and the yellow diamond I used in the logo. These were much more successful. These icons would not be used alone, they would always have to have some kind of text to indicate the icons’ meaning.
After this, I felt the design was incomplete, that it was missing an element. The yellow diamond in the background completed the design. With this, I wanted to allude to a traffic sign or to an alien spaceship, depending on the viewer. After doing my online research, I felt the need to go out and ask residents opinions about my redesign. From the feedback I received, I learned that my design stays true to what the city represents.