2009– 2018
Alpine Camp
Refined logo, brand identity, website redesign & promotional materials for a boys’ summer camp in northern Alabama.
Alpine Camp's home page as it launched in 2008. Note the background, consisting of a scanned letter written by the camp's founder as a camper.
Long-term Relationship
In 2008, I was honored to work with Ronningen Design on a web-site for Alpine Camp in northern Alabama. I was primarily responsible for the front end design of the new site, which was based heavily on textures and imagery from the camp itself. The camp has a long, rich history and remains commited to time-honored Christian principles and a simpler way of life, even in the midst of the modern world.
In addition to the front-end design, I was also involved in a brief video shoot on the camp property. The camp's directors were very articulate about the camp's vision and the videos gave them an opportunity to share their thoughts with a larger audience. Videos on camp websites were rare at the time and I acted as principle videographer and editor for the videos that were featured on their site.
With the 2008 website, I began to establish a consistent identity for the camp’s brand that they hadn’t had before. I got an opportunity to push it further when Alpine came back to Ronningen Design in 2009 and requested a printed identity package to replace their depleted stock of letterhead and business cards.
While initially reluctant to commit to the clean, black-and-white color palette, Alpine began to enjoy the prominence it gave to their rich photography — provided by photographer Clark Brewer. For the identity, however, they requested the re-introduction of their traditional forest green to compensate for the lack of other colors — along with their existing pine tree logomark.
Branding
& Identity Package
2009
The highlight of the work was a custom DVD mailer designed to be noticed right out of the mailbox. The piece was modeled after a Netflix mailer, which was in widespread use at the time before the company had moved to online streaming. This piece was the first produced in collaboration with Blue Ridge Printing in Asheville, NC, who I’ve worked with regularly since.
Promotional Packet
2013
Running out of their old promotional brochure reminded Alpine Camp of how old, ugly, and ineffective it was and they requested a new one from Ronningen Design.
Rather than a single brochure, however, we decided to design a whole package of promotional materials that could not be ignored if it showed up in a mailbox.
We wanted the materials to come tumbling out of the envelope like Christmas morning. I designed a total of six pieces in all: a DVD envelope and sleeve (noted before), a large camp map (using artwork scanned from an illustrated print in the camp office), a daily schedule sheet, a sheet of activity stickers, and a large brochure which formed the centerpiece of the package.
Blue Ridge Printing produced the entire package and I consulted with them closely.
Campers at Alpine plan their own schedule of activities and they could begin planning their summer by affixing the stickers to the front of the daily schedule.
Author Jonathan Rogers — himself an Alpine Camp alumnus — had attended the camp with his sons the summer before and written an immersive series of articles for the camp's blog. Together with one of the directors, I edited those articles and crafted a narrative for the brochure, alternating pages of prose with bright spreads of photography — courtesy of photographer Clark Brewer, who was a pleasure to work with.
Website Redesign
2017
The 2008 site served Alpine Camp, but by 2017, it was past time for a redesign. The old site was not responsive and graphically heavy, meaning it was often slow to load. The site was also static and therefore difficult to update.
For the redesign, the directors at Alpine Camp requested an evolution of the previous design which had served them so well and gained so much praise from their families. Their primary concern was to lighten and simplify the overall appearance, while streamlining the navigation for faster access. The look and feel of the new site drew primary inspiration from the brand development I had been working over the years preceding the project.
Priorities
I interviewed the client extensively to determine their preferences and gain an understanding of their families' needs. I assembled a design collage to collect my visual notes and get their approval on the general direction of the project. Following that, I designed high-fidelity mockups for client approval and development direction.
The site was built on Ronningen Design's Typewriter platform, giving the client a user-friendly CMS and page design tool, as well as an easy-to-use blogging engine. Typewriter gives Alpine Camp the ability to update existing pages and add new ages using elements like the ones shown above.
My designs were built by the development team at Ronningen Design and I helped to build many of the pages on the new site. I also trained Alpine Camp’s office staff to use the content management system to maintain and expand in the website going forward.
Since completing the design of Alpine Camp’s latest website in 2017, I’ve been honored to work with them on smaller projects since — including this postcard, created in 2019 to promote their upcoming season.
A strong, consistent, well-established visual identity provides flexibility to produce attractive new work quickly and affordably!
Communication is foundational to a successful creative project and marketing campaign — especially a brand identity in development over the course of three major projects and 9 years! Alpine Camp was a consistent pleasure to work with and appreciate the clarity of their expectations and input throughout each phase of the working relationship. I also value the trust they placed in me to record, maintain and extend their visual identity.