Blair Francey

MA, RGD

Niagara Benchlands

Scope

/ Brand strategy
/ Visual identity systems
/ Guidelines
/ Tactical communications and marketing
/ Art Direction
/ Microsite design and deployment

Agency
/ Trajectory Brands Inc.

Launch
/ 2021

The Town of Lincoln was looking to promote the region between Hamilton and Niagara as a destination for tourists to visit, and not just drive through on the QEW. Our assignment started with fundamentals: creating a destination name and positioning for an under-explored area stretching along the north shore of Lake Ontario in the Niagara peninsula. The area’s tourism stakeholders are diverse – from villages to fruit farmers, wine makers, hospitality, arts, heritage, and green spaces – so reaching agreement on a new name for the region was a major breakthrough. We were tasked with developing a new name and identity to unite the towns under one brand they could all use to promote themselves to visitors.

Positioning this area as Niagara’s “other natural wonder” differentiates it from nearby destinations, including Niagara Falls. Our identity design, echoing the landscape, adapts to local communities and international audiences and even changes with the seasons.

"Niagara Benchlands" celebrates the area’s world-renowned food and beverage “tastemakers”; its deep agricultural roots; and a lush backcountry of benches and shoreline that includes the UNESCO-designated Niagara Escarpment Biosphere.

According to Wikipedia, "a bench or benchland is a long, relatively narrow strip of relatively level or gently inclined land that is bounded by distinctly steeper slopes above and below it. Benches can be of different origins and created by very different geomorphic processes."

The adoption of the name "Niagara Benchlands" was the catalyst for the design process. Having a moniker for everyone to unite under helped us figure out how to tell the story from a design perspective. As the term benchlands is a geologic feature of the land, I wanted to take a topographic look at the area. This lent itself to the final brand solution - a wordmark with a stylized version of a top-down look at the areas topography. The wordmark can be used with just "Niagara Benchlands" or incorporate other location markers (e.g., Niagara Benchlands, Lincoln, Ontario or Beamsville).

As the area's offerings is closely tied to the changing seasons, I offered alternative colour palette options for the four seasons to reflect the changing physical environment; from deep emerald greens in the summer to cool and fresh blue tones for winter activities. It has been widely adopted and embraced by the client and the locals.

Along with brand guidelines and logo files, we created banners and a traveling booth for conferences, stationary templates, a tent design, and a toolkit for how to adopt and utilize the brand assets for businesses. We also developed a website for the annual Winter Wine Festival to help bring the brand to life for one of the regions biggest festivals.

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