Creuna and Destinasjon Voss AS have been awarded for design excellence "Merket for god design" from the Norwegian Design Council for the new Destinasjon Voss profile. The award was presented on March 17. The 2010 award ceremony represented the best of the best and recognized some of Norway’s cutting edge businesses and most talented designers.
On March 17, "Merket for god design" was bestowed on Norway’s best design and innovation projects. Creuna and Destinasjon Voss were given the award for the latter’s new profile. "Merket for god design" is a recognition of successful use of design in creating innovative products and solutions. The distinction is a seal of quality for use in the company’s marketing efforts.
The jury noted: “It is liberating to see a tourism industry player highlight its own unique strengths and weaknesses in such a fresh, candid manner. Voss has succeeded at the difficult task of recognizing itself and then revealing itself to the whole world. An explosive and thorough visual concept conveys a destination unique unto itself.
“The communication concept is seamlessly integrated into the profile, with lots of humor and unpretentious self-irony. It is communication that works for all target groups everywhere— not least for Voss residents themselves.”
In cooperation with Destinasjon Voss and the Norwegian Design Council, Creuna developed a profile and trademark for Voss. Creuna’s ambition was to set a new standard for destination branding. In addition to creating a brand that would appeal to external target groups, the idea was to fashion a product that would be embraced by the people of Voss themselves. The profile was launched on May 13, 2009.
Its point of departure was an already locally-based tourism strategy, and combined with ongoing involvement of all interested parties, this ensured a highly effective process. “We grabbed hold of the existing brand capital: Voss as a different kind of place, a positively zany place that people warm up to”, says Creuna’s Lead Designer Marc Ligeti.
The logo was inspired by the notion that things get turned around in Voss. Thus, Creuna put the second S in Voss backwards. Furthermore, they were inspired by traditional Vossian design motifs, and the location in the heart of Norway’s fjord country.
Anne Grethe Bakke, General Manager of Destinasjon Voss, says of the partnership with Creuna: “Working with Creuna to come up with a new visual profile for Voss inspired us in every way. Destinasjon Voss’s competence in tourism and Creuna’s competence in creative concept development in brand building produced a result the local newspapers have described as ingeniously simple! An ingeniously simple concept that would strike home with Vossians was what we dreamt of; now the dream is reality and we will soon be ready for the rest of the world!”
The Creuna team members were: Arne Hjeltnes (Consultant), Harald Ofstad Fougner (Consultant), Marc Ligeti (Lead Designer), Stein Øvre (Senior Designer) and Stian Krosby (Senior Consultant)
The Destinasjon Voss profile is one of several new profiles and communications concepts recently developed by Creuna Norway: