Finding Manhattan | Ashtopia.creative

FINDING MANHATTAN

Graphics & Illustration / Identity/ Print & Packaging

This conceptual project was a twist on illustrated travel guides to redefine the way visitors navigate the BIG APPLE and explore offline through a playful lens and discover their way like a local!

My role

Concept, copywriting, visual Research
Dieline & print-ready artwork, Llayout & testing
Graphics, traditional & digital illustration

The Approach

The newer generation of tourists doesn't like feeling out of the loop within a place and it's culture, and integrating can seem more exhausting than we think.
Many city guides out there are very informative, however, they're also heavy to digest and carry around on travels, which sometimes makes the experience more tedious than exciting.

Travellers like to experience a place's culture & local spots over just visiting popular attractions which dilutes the authenticity of experience.

Travel guides often feel too bulky to travel with, & have overwhelming information.

Many guides don't have information from local perspectives,; this lack of building connection with a place and its people makes travellers feel like outsiders.

Insights

Process

Early stages of identity and visual direction with raw scamps and sketches for quick idea generation.

Identity

The idea of making the experience of using travel guides more friendly to a younger demographic, an identity had to be so much more exciting and create a visual impact with the audience. It needed to be fun but not overly complicated with a colour palette that shows off the city's personality.

Logo

With a friendly, quirky and fun approach to the brand, I created a hand-lettered logo that represented a crafted quality, capturing the quirky personality of the city.

Illustrations

With a saturation of travel guides that fail to capture the 'young' cultural beauty of the city . The illustrations that I created were used across branding collateral where the hand-drawn aesthetic was something for users to connect to and engage their inner child.

A welcome pack

The concept evolved into a hands-on welcome pack—a boxed set of illustrated guides and a map—designed to visually engage and excite travelers as they explore the city.

A boxed set of illustrated guides and a map that gives people convenience of space to carry and desire to keep a memento long after the journey.

Brochures & booklte

Individual fold-out brochures provide cool local spots & attractions, food, shopping, and events, opening the window to Manhattan culture & lifestyle dos and don'ts.

Similar information is provided additionally in a bound booklet.