Branding Design

North Ventures Branding & App Concept

Timeline

12 Weeks

Role

Brand Designer, UI Designer

Tools

Figma Adobe Illustrator Adobe Photoshop Miro

Challenge

This project, completed as part of my Interaction Design program at George Brown College, focused on helping North Ventures stand out in Canada's competitive adventure tourism market. After the pandemic, travellers aged 20-40 were increasingly seeking personalized, easy-to-book experiences. The core objective was to build a modern brand identity and a mobile app that felt trustworthy, adventurous, and flexible enough for both online and offline use.

  • Distinctive brand identity
  • Social Media campaign
  • Design a mobile app

Solution

Created a cohesive brand system and designed a mobile app interface that reflect freedom, customization, and the spirit of exploration. The logo, colour palette, and typography are consistent across social media, web, and the mobile app. Users can browse tours, add optional experiences, and book in a few taps

  • Cohesive brand identity
  • App design

Process & Approach

Research

Competitive review: Looked at G Adventures and Contiki to spot gaps. Those services offer preset itineraries with limited customization. North Ventures needed more flexibility.

User insights: Defined a core persona "Jamie," a 30-year-old seeking off-the-beaten-path trips she can tweak. We learned she values control over every detail but hates cluttered menus.

Objectives:

  • Build a memorable, scalable brand.
  • Design an app flow for easy tour customization.
  • Launch social campaigns that match the brand's tone.
Research Phase

Design

Created a design system focused on data visualization and user efficiency.

North Ventures Mood Board North Ventures Color Palette North Ventures Typography Guide North Ventures Logo Sketches North Ventures Logo Mockups North Ventures Final Logo

Brand Identity:

  • Logo: Stylized mountain peaks suggest layered adventures. Monochrome palette works across light and dark modes, and all sizes from billboards, social media, app icons, and websites.
  • Typography & Color: Krona One - provides bold, modern headlines reflecting Canada's adventurous spirit, while Lato ensures clear, friendly readability for all app details. The primary teal blue suggests Canada's natural beauty and trust, paired with crisp white for a clean, inviting app experience.
North Ventures App Mockup

App Design:

  • Onboarding flow: A clear, multi-step flow with illustrative icons guides new users, ending with a "Choose City" screen for initial personalization.
  • Streamlined Navigation: A persistent bottom tab bar ensures easy access to Home, Tours, Cart, and Account, promoting efficient task completion.
  • Dynamic Home Screen: Features prominent "Popular Tours" with engaging imagery, alongside categorical filters and a clear search bar for quick access.
  • Tour Details: A detailed view with images, descriptions, and customizable options (e.g., duration, activities, and price).
North Ventures Social Media Posts

Social Media Assets:

  • Promotional posts: Mirrors the brand's visual style. Bold headlines and photo overlays promote the brand's "Build your own adventure" message.

Outcome & Results

Here's a look at what was achieved with the North Ventures project:

Key Achievements

  • A Stronger Brand: A brand and app design that captures North Ventures' adventurous spirit. The design system was for seamless scalability across various media types, from social media to mobile to print.
  • Positive First Impressions: Early feedback from classmates and instructors was positive, highlighting the intuitive booking process and the fresh, adventurous visual style.
  • Instructor's Feedback: The class instructor provided feedback on the "logo's clean simplicity" and how its stylized mountain peaks effectively showed the layered adventures. The use of the colour palette was effective with its ability to evoke both "Canada's cold winters with blue and its warm summer lakes with bright orange."

Reflections

This project was a huge learning experience, and it's exciting to see how everything came together.

What Went Well

  • Applying UX/UI End-to-End: It was fantastic to take this project from initial research all the way to a polished visual design. Really got to put those UX/UI principles into practice.
  • User-Centered Solutions: A big win was figuring out how to balance what users really needed with the business goals. It's cool how much impact that focus had.
  • Refining for Impact: Saw firsthand how even small tweaks, especially in areas like onboarding, could make a huge difference in how smooth the experience felt.
  • Bringing the Brand to Life: Successfully translating abstract ideas like "adventure" into concrete visuals, like the logo and colors, was incredibly satisfying.

Room to Grow

  • Deeper Testing: If there was more time, more extensive usability testing with a wider range of people would be great. Always curious to see even more ways to make things better.