For those unfamiliar, Centennial Park is an area in Wildwood Crest where different events are held like outdoor concerts and festivals. When there’s nothing going on, it’s nice to go sit under the canopy and enjoy the sights.
Iconically, though not as iconic as the beach balls at the Wildwoods sign, Centennial Park has large letters around the back end of the canopy that spell out C R E S T, in case you forgot which part of the five-mile long island you’re on. I wanted to capture this in the logo, but without “Crest” actually being in the name, I had some brainstorming to do.
Ironically, I was recently commissioned to design a logo for a startup barbecue business for a couple of friends. Unfortunately, due to my diet, I couldn’t accept payment in the form of delicious smoked ribs and had to settle on regular Benjamins. (Feelings are hurt, tbh.)
I graduated from the University of the Arts on May 19, 2011 with my BFA in Graphic Design. Interestingly, it was the same day my mom graduated from Camden County College with her associates in Accounting, only ten years later. During the ceremony, I looked around and noticed a lot of my peers had decorated their caps. I did not. I felt kind of odd possibly “ruining” a piece of my wardrobe I will 100% never wear again. So at home, in a Ziplock, I have my plain black cap and tassel, just existing and taking up space. My mom also did not decorate her cap for her ceremony, nor was it something she kept, so it’s not like I was urged to do such a thing, nor did I have direct inspiration. In fact, I don’t remember anyone in my family having their caps decorated for their ceremonies.
When I applied to the MS Strategic Advertising and Marketing program at Temple University, I remember reading the list of courses in the curriculum and being intrigued. Listed were a few marketing courses, a few advertising courses, a design theory course (which really excited me), a media planning course, a user experience design course (also very exciting), the marketing capstone and something that originally terrified me: a statistics course. My brain immediately placed the latter one in the math bucket and the first word out of my mouth was NOPE.
By changing the core messaging and positioning of Good Seasons from being a delicious dressing mix for your family to excite their dinner salads, we turned it to it being a delicious all-purpose seasoning mix here for your convenience. We played on the low cost and ease of use of the product to pitch our ideas. Although we understood nostalgia played a big part in the percentage of the target audience who was already hooked, we needed to leverage that to give the brand edge—not your mom’s good seasons! We harped on the fact Good Seasons’ packaging and logo was in dire need of an upgrade and its overall presence needed to broadcast much further than just on the store shelves.
