Design 4 Development Discovery for Xyaat

the university of florida design studio

cooperativa xyaat Señor, Quintana Roo Exploration and Discovery 19–24 January 2008

cooperativa xyaat / Exploration and Discovery / January 2008

CONTENTS:

Creative Brief Highlights

- Objective

- Strengths

- Weakness

- Opportunities

- Threats

- Audience

- Brand Attributes Market Position Market Research / Playa del Carmen Competitive Landscape / Logo Examples Competitive Landscape / Brochure Examples Competitive Landscape /Identity Applications Competitive Landscape /Distrubution Examples Design Proposal

- Brand Refresh

- Business System

- Website

- Brochure

- Signage

- Product Tags

- Style Guide

mint design team:

Molly Aubry Emily Frye Marcela Gurdiรกn Gabriela Hernandez (email) gabyh@ufl.edu Kelly Jeck Ashley Schick Kelly Skinner instructor:

Doug Barrett (email) barretd@ufl.edu liaison:

Maria Rogal (email) mrogal@ufl.edu

cooperativa xyaat / Exploration and Discovery / January 2008

Creative Brief Highlights

project objective

Create an identity (logo, color palette, signage, website and printed materials) in order to help a relatively unknown cooperative community promote a controlled amount of consistent tourism. This project will aid in teaching and preserving Mayan traditions and culture while also creating a reliable source of income for the cooperative.

strengths

weaknesses opportunities threats Unique

Language barrier Community based workers People leaving community Culturally sustainable Unknown to tourist Eligible for grants

Current lack of funding Close to road Difficult to access Surrounding communities support Health concerns, perceived fears Low-impact

Narrow market Experts in the field Tourism trends Flexible

No tourist infrastructure Future land development

Litter problem does not support

enviromental conerns.

audience

Experienced and savvy travelers who are adventurous as well as ecologically and culturally aware. brand attributes

The following attributes should be reflected in the new brand image:

Unique

Eco-friendly

Authentic (a first hand experience)

Adventurous

Educational

Socially Responsible (These qualities are relayed through image, color, emotion, type and design)

cooperativa xyaat / Exploration and Discovery / January 2008

Market Position

objective

Refreshing the identity will help the cooperative reach their goal of creating a sustainable level of low impact tourism. Achieving this goal will preserve traditional Mayan culture, an objective of Xyaat, while educating tourists and developing a reliable source of income. Today the community is ready to share their culture with visitors but it has not yet reached its target market. While the community wants to draw a larger audience of tourists, they do not want to negatively impact their way of life. The new identity can achieve this by maintaining a sense of authenticity without looking artificially fabricated, while providing a unique option to tourists which is not yet available in the region.

Globally Recognized

Self-guided

All-inclusive

FUTURE POSITION

POSITION TODAY

cooperativa xyaat / Exploration and Discovery / January 2008

Unknown Brand

Market Research / Playa del Carmen

Major providers (allTOURnatives, Naturama Ecotours), hotels (EcoColors and Aldebaron at Hotel Lunata), car rental stands (Avis), and walk-up kiosks all offer tours of “Maya” villages to tourists. After conducting interviews with tourists, we found that most visitors rely on their hotels for tour information (as opposed to approaching street vendors).

Most tours include transportation, food, tour guides, and have two to three destinations. Most tours offered multiple destinations combined into one-day. For example, the most popular “Mayan” allTOURnative tour includes a Mayan village tour, repelling, swimming, canoeing, a Mayan feast and a visit to Coba. Tours run from 7:30am until 5 or 7pm. The tour company provides transportation to and from the hotel. Some tours have excursions every day of the week while others are limited to 2 or 3 days a week. If they are only offered occasionally throughout the week, the most popular days are Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Prices range from $500 to $1350 pesos and are sometimes negotiable. Larger groups are often offered a discounted rate. Smaller, private tours command a higher price.

When questioned about the village of Señor most of the tour guides had not heard of it or could not provide any information about it. If they had heard about Señor, most said that there was nothing there to see. Only one guide offered to take a group of tourists to Señor after being asked specifically. Overall, research findings indicate that Señor is not seen as a significant place of interest.

Brochure rack locations were found at travel agencies, car rental locations, hotels, shops, and money exchange kiosks. Brochures were usually found in a large, free-standing rack in the entrance of the business establishment.

In hotels and shops brochures could be found on tables or a reception desk in a individual specialty rack. When encountering a walk-up kiosk the vendor would call out to passing tourists in hopes that they would stop. They would then try to cater to the tourist’s individual wants. At some major tour providers there would be an accompanying slide show of the desired tour.

Posters featured glamorous, eye-catching images with simple and direct text. Brochures were usually colorful and major tour providers usually had a cohesive brand image. In order to fit in brochure racks, most brochures were standard size (10 x 25,5 cms).

cooperativa xyaat / Exploration and Discovery / January 2008

Competitive Landscape

logo examples

These are logos from major tour providers.

cooperativa xyaat / Exploration and Discovery / January 2008

Competitive Landscape

brochure examples

These brochures demonstrate a cohesive information system from major tour providers.

alderbaran

cooperativa xyaat / Exploration and Discovery / January 2008

alltournative

Competitive Landscape

identity applications

These tour providers apply their identity in various ways to promote thier business.

cooperativa xyaat / Exploration and Discovery / January 2008

Competitive Landscape

identity applications

These tour providers apply their identity in various ways to promote thier business.

cooperativa xyaat / Exploration and Discovery / January 2008

Competitive Landscape

distrubution examples

The pictures shown are examples of ways that tour providers make information available to tourists.

cooperativa xyaat / Exploration and Discovery / January 2008

Design Proposal

brand refreshment

Refreshing the cooperative’s identity will include a logo, color palette, type treatments and overall design.

This design solution will address the goals and concerns of the cooperative. It will be provided in a four-color treatment and one-color treatment as a PDF, EPS via CD. business system

This will include a letterhead, envelope, business card as well as invoices and receipts in an editable PDF form. website

A small website will be developed to reach global consumers. It will include contact and tour information as well as original photography. The design of the website will reinforce the new brand identity of the Xyaat cooperative. We will launch the inital website and provide all files for client maintenance. brochure

Contact and tour information, photographs, maps (directional and on-site) and price tables will be included.

This will be provided in Adobe Illustrator and PDF format. signage

Templates for large-scale signage to be placed in the community as well along the main road will be provided in PDF format. style guide

An all-inclusive style guide will be created containing all of the above information as well as guidelines for future brand usage. This will be provided via CD, PDF and a printed copy.

cooperativa xyaat / Exploration and Discovery / January 2008