Jonathan Cooper

Designer, Thinker, Educator

Mobile Airport Authority

Mobile Airport Authority taps SCAD to create a branded experience throughout the Alabama Gulf Coast.

SCAD invited me as the creative director for a research and branding project for Mobile Airport Authority. My role was to oversee the three grad students responsible for research, marketing and project management, and the 11 undergrad students, ranging focus areas like design, illustration, interactive, architecture, and photography.

The project kicked off with stakeholders Chris Curry and Devin Calametti hosting our research group as we toured the Alabama Gulf Coast. Our goal was to capture the energy, history, and language of the local scene, and build it into an expansive visual system that could harmonize the tourist journey through the gulf region.

Branding
Research
Direction
Concept

After visiting each regiion, I wanted to capture the uniqueness of every destination. While Mobile is a cultural epicenter, whose history and culinary offerings are only shadowed by its people, Orange Beach had commercial opportunity for tourist attraction with its miles of beautiful beaches. The design system needed to be able to respond to it all.

I presented a system that allowed a branded element from each point of interest to stand on its own, built on a geometric language inspired by the landscape. Each piece comes together to form a main lockup for the overall project.

Based on the geometry of logo and inspired by the wrought iron architecture of Mobile, I developed a responsive grid system that would allow for photography and illustration to come together.

The final system is a geometric design solution that can respond to each region. It’s logical enough to unify the Alabama Gulf Coast, quiet enough to let the photography of the landscape speak, and fun enough to inspire tourists to buy the merchandise.

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