The Wisconsin Department of Tourism announced that in 2010, Wisconsin tourism generated $12.3 billion in revenue.
Learning To See Again
In 2010, we were asked to help brand the village of Osceola, the third city or downtown we were commissioned to brand so it was seen as a destination worth visiting. Part of our exercise was to visually capture details of the city that we knew the citizens of Osceola took for granted. I worked with the very talented Steven Braker, a veteran photographer in the Midwest.
Here are some of the examples showing our “visual audit” of this lovely community.
Only after seeing what assets Osceola had could we begin to carve out a voice that would stand out and have meaning for this lovely community.
And for their annual celebration attracting well over 10,000 visitors, we created this poster bringing together the two worlds of  wheels and wings (vintage automobiles and airplanes). Note that this vintage hood ornament doubles as an airplane with the clouds reflected in the shiny hood of this classic car.
How Can You Brand What You Can’t See?
These are shown here so you can see what this lovely city had taken for granted. They’d forgotten some of the gems they lived with each and every day. Which is truly the lesson here: You must never — and can’t afford — to over forget the viewpoint of your audience.
Yet, when the committee assigned to this project viewed these, their eyes were reborn to now see what they were sitting on.
Is your city keeping its hidden gems buried out of view? I can think of 12.3 billion reasons why you should explore this.
Happy branding.