Learn about Kelowna’s Updated Brand Strategy & Visual Direction - Part 2
The team from Partners & Hawes (Taya, Catherine & Gisele) joined me at our Annual General Meeting workshops in May 2025 to answer questions from local tourism businesses to better understand the brand development process, the meaning behind the brand, and ways to help bring this destination brand to life.
This second article is based on that Q&A session and focuses on the second phase of the brand redevelopment process, during which we further developed the visual identity and design system. Click here to read the first article in the series.
Image credit: Jarusha Brown Photography
Q: (Chris) I remember when we regrouped after the immersion trip. I was buzzing with excitement. We gathered at the Innovation Centre, and you had what seemed like 984 slides to run through in the hour we had together. You whizzed through it, and I remember feeling like it went by in a flash. At that time, you introduced our core brand idea: “Life-Giving.” Can each of you tell us what Kelowna’s life-giving energy means to you?
A: (Catherine) It goes back to everything we experienced on that immersion trip: from the local lifestyle to local businesses, to the producers who work with the land, the burgeoning education and tech sectors – there’s a vibrant energy that flows through it all. It’s something you feel everywhere - a creative energy that comes from the land, the lake, and the sun and infuses every facet of life. We picked the phrase Life-Giving to describe this energy because both those words are important: vibrancy and generosity. Generosity of spirit is a widely held value here, and calling it out sets an expectation for visitors, too.
(Taya) I’ve got a short answer to this: That I’ll be awakened while I’m here.
(Gisele) You can feel the energy of the land as soon as you step foot on it. It’s different from the rest of the province. Even though all of BC is absolutely stunning, the land here is special.
Q: (Chris) So let’s talk visuals. I recall you coming in with an intimidating number of slides to give us the first glimpse at the visual direction. How did you take what you learned and the life-giving ideas, and make creative / design / visual decisions from there?
A: (Taya) I think when you’re briefed with such a beautiful idea like Life Giving, when you’re thinking about the visuals of the brand, you think experiential and sensory.
The primary driver for the creative development was how do you build sensory expression into the brand? We did this through creative devices like lively type, onomatopoeia, and very visceral imagery. That’s the payoff of Life Giving. We’re designing for all applications, including sonic branding and 3D, not just 2D.
Image credit: Lexa Bergen
Q: (Chris) The colour palette is great. There are also many colours used, which is a bit unusual. How are we going to use all these bright, vivid colours together without it looking chaotic?
A: (Taya) For this assignment, we created a primary palette and a seasonal palette. All the colours go together, but they can also be used interchangeably to reflect the changing seasons. It’s a strong colour system that establishes Kelowna as an all-season destination and further showcases that we are designing for the long term.
Q: (Chris) Fonts are also important to bring the brand to life. One of the main fonts is Roc Grotesque. How and when do we use it, and when do we use other fonts?
A: (Taya) We’re using Roc Grotesque as one of our brand’s primary typefaces. It serves as our clean, no-frills sans serif font. It’s versatile and easy to read. It’s a good font for everyday use. But when we really want to dial up the energy and bring more personality in, we tap into its full range of variable weights to create what we call “Lively Type”. This dynamic, expressive style is designed to make an impact. Big. Bold. Full of movement. You’ll often see Lively Type used for punchy onomatopoeic words like “Crunch” or “Burst.”
Example of brand elements used in the fall advertising campaign. The still image is an amalgamation of digital video advertising.
Q: (Chris) Images and video are also super important for developing brands. How do we take all of this work and relay it into photo and video? What ideas and direction do you have for us and our partners, photographers, and videographers we work with?
A: (Taya) We want to convey the expression of a feeling: images that hit all your senses. When choosing or capturing images, we want you to use more than just your eyes. Ask yourself: is this image bursting with energy? Does it display generosity? Does it look abundant? Is it extra visceral? Is it vivid? Does it feel experiential? Is it urban-ish?
We also want to use depth and layering to show dimension in our photos and videos, sometimes by adding in graphic elements or text. We’ll do this particularly in high-impact situations for extra energy.
We will also bring in some other graphic elements like motion blur to inject energy, movement and dynamism. This adds a sense of action and vitality. Or we might employ repetition, which is an easy way to show abundance. These elements work for photo and video, bringing it all together.
We’ve built Kelowna’s visual brand and design platform as a system with many elements that all work together to convey the feeling of live-giving energy at every possible touchpoint possible.
Image credit: Darren Hull Studios
One more article is still to come in this series, which will shed some light on how the P&H team tackled a really, really long list of deliverables, how the work was prioritized, how partners can start to use the brand materials more, and what’s coming up in 2026 as our new destination brand gets rolled out across Canada and beyond.
If you have questions about Tourism Kelowna’s brand or our marketing and communication strategy, please contact me at chris.shauf@tourismkelowna.com. You can also watch this recording of a presentation done in March 2025, when we introduced the refreshed brand.
