The town of Augusta was founded in 1836 by Leonard Harold, one of the settlers that followed Daniel Boone to Saint Charles County. It boasts some breathtaking scenery, with rolling hills, lush trees, river views, and some amazing wine grapes! Augusta’s 300 residents and 50 plus Chamber of Commerce members couldn’t be prouder of the area’s rich heritage and amazing experiences available to them. Kolbeco was approached by the Greater Augusta Chamber of Commerce to create a brand, including website, that would embody this rich history, and tell potential visitors about all the great things Augusta, and it’s surrounding communities, have to offer them!
The goal was to share information to help GACC attract visitors to this amazing area, and convey it in a way that celebrated all The Greater Augusta Chamber of Commerce had to offer it’s members.
“The Chamber of Commerce is committed to creating a competitive and diverse business environment in Augusta. As an independent and unique community, we value creative, new ideas when they come to town. Our small business owners are the fabric of our community and our success as a village is dependent on theirs. That is why our chamber promotes the success of our local business owners by offering education and networking opportunities.”
The first goal was to create a logo that shared the area’s culture, color, and stretched the imagination with ideas of things to do, so I chose a color palate that reflected the area’s seasonal beauty…and of course wine! I chose a font that had a slight rustic feel without going to “old”. I then chose symbols to include that captured popular features – the Katy Trail is a popular attraction to this area so the bicycle was an ideal outdoor activity item to use. The rolling hills embrace the scenery, and the wineries are a very popular draw so using the wine glass was appropriate here.
Next, the website was on the list for a facelift. It was important that it stand out; giving the viewer a feel for what the chamber and the area have to offer, while still being very user friendly. So the combination of information, written and visual, held a lot of value here. We wanted the site to show the viewer what Augusta is all about, some history mixed with the outdoors and class, so pulling in some of the rustic qualities by using woods of different texture and tone helped provide viewers with the idea of rustic without loosing the classiness of this treasured place. The wine casks were a great way to call attention the the popularity of the wineries and call attention to important areas of the Chamber’s site, and different using images of the area was important to get a sneak peek at Augusta. We reflected all the colors chosen for the logo within the site to marry the brand and use this to our advantage to call attention to copy in key areas.
In the end the client was extremely pleased with the results, as were we! It is informative, visually appealing, easy to use, and most of all unique.
