West Coast Council of Tasmania announced the launch of a new open-source brand for Tasmania’s West Coast along with a short film that captures the essence of the place.
The West Coast is remote, lacks profile and has a declining population– so the requirement of the brand was to breathe new life into the region in order to attract business investment, facilitate economic development, drive population growth, and encourage people to investigate beyond the more well-known parts of Tasmania.
The West Coast’s natural features, tough people and history of tension between environment and economy needed to be reflected in the brand.
To achieve this, Sydney branding agency For The People worked with the West Coast Council, 4,000 residents, tourism operators, and councillors to collaboratively develop the brand.
The process sets a new standard for comprehensive community consultation and regional branding in the local government and tourism sector.
The new brand identity embraces the West Coast’s confronting history in a story that distinguishes it from the rest of the country.
The identity took an open and inclusive approach, utilising an open source brand system that the entire region and community can utilise to tell their own stories– which combine to collectively shape a cohesive identity for the region.
Building an open source brand identity meant the identity system needed to be highly accessible and usable by any of the West Coast’s residents, tourism operators and business owners in the West Coast.
The branding allows for a multitude of anecdotal, distinctly West Coast messages to be expressed.
Coupled with a bespoke typeface, iconography, and a photography library that defies the usual tourism imagery, the region can convey a coherent narrative and regional style, whilst maintaining the individual personality of each town, business or initiative.
As an open-source identity system, every aspect is free to use by locals in the region, meaning even the smallest tourism operators have the tools to communicate effectively, without the usual cost-prohibitive procedures.
The West Coast is a region that requires determination and willpower to experience it properly.
It’s not glitz and glamour. This is a hard landscape with even harsher weather.
By clearly identifying the beauty and appeal of what’s on offer in the West Coast and what it means to be West Coaster, we hope to empower the community to build on the foundation of the identity and confidently and coherently express who they are and what the West Coast is.
This will help to attract visitors, business, residents and investors who are looking for discovery, that have the determination to take a path that’s less trodden, and that are looking for a unique perspective on life, from a remote part of a tiny island at the edge of the world.
Check out the full Project Case Study here.
