As part of a larger campaign to show the impact the University has on the state of North Carolina, campus leadership decided to re-launch the statewide bus tour that had last taken place 10 years ago. The Tar Heel Bus Tour is a way for University faculty and administration to connect with the state and learn from the community. As part of the relaunched tour, the University wanted to have a visual identity that could be used to create consistency and enhance recognition for the tour.

Results

UNC Creative designed a brand guide which included a custom logo mark, typography, color palette, icons and illustrations. The brand needed to lean heavily on existing University branding elements to demonstrate the tie to Carolina and benefit from the strength of the established brand, but also needed to be able to stand alone and represent this event. The logo is in a badge form and has the outline of the state of North Carolina with a depiction of the University’s Old Well mark in the location of our hometown, Chapel Hill. The tour had three separate routes and each route was branded with a different color variation of the logo. Additionally, icons were developed to represent the different topics that would be covered on the tour and an illustrated scene was created to incorporate the icons and landmarks from the different regions of the state. The resulting brand was used to create bus wraps, tour materials, ads, luggage tags, signage and an app. This project was honored with a silver medal at the 2020 International Davey Awards.