Background

4.1 BACKGROUND

4.1.1 INSPIRATION

Ohio is full of lush and adventurous learning opportunities for the history that has run it’s course through our lands. Ohio’s Southern Descent is an opportunity to truly learn about that history with a modern take on a recreational learning experience. Our goal here is to provide an active education that allows for personal growth in our audience and an economically positive growth for our local towns that have come to love their own history and proudly share it with others.

Ohio’s Southern Descent branding draws from our beautifully crafted lock structures and provides the context our audience needs to fully visualize and understand what we were and what we are today. 4.1.2 BRAND IDENTITY NAMING CONVENTION

With the help of our Ohio & Erie Canal Southern Descent Heritage Trail volunteers and supporters, we were able to bring in a much more concise approach to branding our beautiful, historical experience. With Ohio’s Southern Descent, we immediately place our audience where they need to be. Our tagline “Our Canal Heritage, Your Adventure”, with a little help from our visuals, gives the audience the clues they need to open their imagination to what we’re about and brings a welcoming atmosphere to what we have to offer.

4.1.3 VISUAL REFERENCES

With our more informative visuals and text, we wanted to really stand out from our competition and collaborators by bringing in a familiar color scheme with a pop of attention-grabbing brightness. Drawing from the outdoors and recreational settings, we hope to entice those interested in history and/or active living.

Finding strength and structure in our typography and boat graphics, we dip into a more fun, illustrative, approach to our lock system. Utilizing this form and colorization allows to really feel the natural material of our main focus while also standing out from our past (boat and water).