Italy Unleashed is a neighbourhood-friendly interactive map of the Bridgeland-Riverside area of Calgary. My team and I were tasked with creating a map that promoted different locations in Bridgeland. I was in charge of the branding and design for this project. I made the logo, website design, and any assets like the icons. We focused on creating a website over a mobile app because we felt our target audience would benefit from that more.
These were my top five choices for the logo. I was fond of #3, as it felt very modern and reminded me of a family-run grocery store or bakery. You can see how I focused more on the Italian theme with the colours and fonts.
The map was designed and inspired with our target audience in mind. We wanted to attract individuals who are avid pet lovers and who appreciate the authentic cuisine of Italy. Bridgeland is known for being the "Little Italy" of Calgary, so we wanted to play into that idea. There is a large number of pet owners in the Bridgeland area, so it made sense to target them as well. My initial ideas and sketches for the logo were more Italian-focused, which caused our dog audience to fade into the background. To combat this issue, I changed the logo colours from the Italian flag to a deep red stroke of just the chef hat. That created a more refined look for the brand.
The seven icons I made are meant to capture the feel of the locations we picked. I went with a sketchy brush to make the icons look more hand-drawn. There is a dessert icon that represents Noto Gelato, a pet icon that represents Doodle Dog and the pet-friendly filter option, the park icon for the two dog parks in the area, a wine glass for the Bridgeland Distillery, pizza for Romas Pizzeria, dining icons for La Brezza and Villa Firenze, and the patio icon for our other filtering option on the map. I wanted to make the icons pop with colour while feeling like a classic sketch.
This homepage is to grab people's attention with the gorgeous view from Bridgeland. Our tagline is "Discover. Dine. Enjoy." We want people to discover new family-run restaurants, dine from the exquisite selection of food, and enjoy an evening out with friends.
The reason we included a filter for patio and pet-friendly locations in Bridgeland is so that individuals can visit these places with their furry friends. That was a huge part of our map that we wanted to include so it would enhance our map usage and features.
This location page is one of my favourites; it perfectly includes every colour of our branding. You really get a feel for the overall look and design.