The brief fitted on a coaster: “Create a logo for Tourism on Tap GC that reflects where we are.”
Tourism on Tap is a laid-back catch-up for the people behind the Gold Coast’s tourism industry, from attractions and accommodation to tours, transport, hospitality and events. It’s hosted by The Tour Collective, runs every second month, and has one firm rule: no presentations and no formal agenda. Just good people, good conversations and a few cold ones.
The first one was held on the Sunset Deck at the Sea World Cruise Terminal in Main Beach, with roaming canapés, drinks by the water and a first look at the brand-new Humpback Whale Discovery Hub. It needed a brand that felt like knock-off drinks with your industry mates, not another conference lanyard. Our designer, Aleisha Mutch, was given free rein to make it happen.
| Client: | The Tour Collective |
| Project: | Tourism on Tap GC, a bi-monthly networking event for Gold Coast tourism |
| What we created: | Logo and badge versions, colour palette, typography, design elements, an image guide, plus flyer and email invitation templates |
| Designer: | Aleisha Mutch |
| Results so far: | 60+ industry professionals at the first event, 85+ at the second |
Why did The Tour Collective come to us?
We’d already worked with The Tour Collective on a range of design and branding projects for Sea World Cruises, Sea World Whale Watch, Hopo, Arro Jet and See Moreton, so this one started with trust already in the bank.
For Clint Gudenswager, Sales Manager at The Tour Collective, the event needed to feel different from the very first invite.
“We’ve worked with the Hopscotch team on a number of projects across The Tour Collective brands, and they’ve always had a great understanding of what we’re trying to achieve. Tourism on Tap was something I wanted to feel a little different from the usual industry networking event. The whole idea was to bring the Gold Coast tourism industry together in a relaxed, informal environment where people could genuinely connect, share ideas and build relationships.
I knew Hopscotch could take that vision and create a brand that was fresh, fun and distinctly Gold Coast.”
Clint Gudenswager, Sales Manager, The Tour Collective
How do you say “Gold Coast” without drawing the skyline?
Clint came to the first conversation with an idea already in hand: a logo built around the Gold Coast skyline, which he’d mocked up with AI. It was a useful starting point. It told us exactly what he wanted the brand to say. We just thought there was a simpler way to say it.
Instead of the skyline, we proposed a little sun, a sparkle of light sitting beside the word TOURISM. It hints at the sunshine the Gold Coast is famous for without spelling it out, and it stays crisp whether it’s on a phone screen, a coaster or a name tag.
“It’s great to receive ideas like this from the client, as they can provide a path to explore. I think that a lot of the time, design choices don’t always have to be obvious to signify meaning to the audience.”
The skyline didn’t disappear completely, either. It found a better home as a small silhouette running along the bottom of the flyers and emails, where it adds a sense of place without having to carry the whole brand.
And the reaction? Clint was refreshingly honest about it.
“I thought I’d done a pretty good job coming up with my own logo concepts using AI, so I was quite proud of myself when I sent them through! But when Aleisha came back with her designs, I quickly realised why you leave these things to the professionals. She took what I was trying to achieve and turned it into something far better than I’d imagined. I loved the simplicity of the logo, the subtle Gold Coast connection and how the whole brand captured the relaxed, social feel of Tourism on Tap. It was exactly what I wanted, even if I didn’t quite know it at the time!”
Clint Gudenswager, Sales Manager, The Tour Collective
What can an AI mock-up do for a design brief?
Clint’s AI concepts deserve a closer look, because they’re a great example of where AI fits in a design project. In a few minutes, he had six logo ideas, a colour palette and a mock-up to bring to the table.
Honestly, briefs don’t get much better than this. Before anyone opened a design file, we could see exactly what was on his mind: the Gold Coast, sunshine, a cold drink and people catching up. That cuts out the usual back and forth of working out what a client is picturing, so the design work can start in the right place. And once an AI tool is well trained, with proper brand guidelines and reference images behind it, it can be a very fast way to launch things quickly.
For a brand that a room full of tourism and marketing professionals will see every couple of months, though, AI-generated design is still easy to spot. Here’s what tends to give it away, and what a designer does differently.
- Every idea at once. Skylines, palm trees, beer glasses, bottles, waves and a sun, often three or four in a single logo. AI tends to include every literal reference in the prompt. A designer usually picks one idea and lets it do the work, which is exactly how the skyline became a little sun.
- The same template on repeat. Six concepts, one formula: a round badge, words curving around the edge, and a brush script paired with a bold condensed font. It’s a look you’ll recognise from plenty of craft breweries and coffee shops, which makes it harder to remember as Tourism on Tap.
- A skyline that could be anywhere. The towers are generic shapes that suggest a coastal city without being recognisably the Gold Coast.
- Detail that disappears when it’s small. Thin lines, a skyline inside a bottle and tiny curved taglines all blur on a social media icon, a coaster or an embroidered shirt. The finished logo was designed to stay crisp at every size.
- Taglines that could belong to anyone. “Connect, share, grow” and “Catch up, connect, collaborate” could sit under almost any networking group.
- A picture, not a working file. A signwriter or printer can’t work from a generated image. It has to be rebuilt as a proper vector file, with fonts that are licensed for commercial use.
Why are the photos shaped like plane windows?
This is the detail we love most. Across the brand, photos are framed in soft, rounded shapes that echo the window you look out of when you fly in for a holiday. Every image becomes a view from the window seat.
“The image cut-out shapes to represent the plane windows were a design choice that is subtle, yet a clever way of relating to tourism.”
It’s the kind of idea most people won’t consciously notice, but it gives every flyer, social tile and email a shared look, and quietly reminds the audience what industry they’re in.
What happens when you pour the Gold Coast into a glass?
What happens when you pour the Gold Coast into a glass?The event is about two things, the tourism industry and a relaxed drink. So we put them in the same frame. Each hero image is a drink with a Gold Coast experience swirling inside it: an espresso martini holding a stretch of beach and skyline, a tulip glass full of surf and headland, a martini glass with a snorkeller gliding through it, and a freshly poured beer with a humpback whale rising through the glass.
“The images where I created a mash-up of a tourism experience and a recognisable beverage were a fun way to relate to the event’s purpose, a networking catch-up over casual drinks for tourism operators on the Gold Coast.”
They do a lot of work in a split second. Before anyone reads a word, the images tell them this is about Gold Coast tourism, and that it’s going to be fun. The whale was a particularly good fit for the first event, which gave guests a first look at the new Humpback Whale Discovery Hub.
What gives the brand its laid-back feel?
What gives the brand its laid-back feel?The colours were picked to feel like a long afternoon by the water. A soft cream sets a relaxed base, a warm brown carries the logo and text, sunshine yellow and pale sky blue fill the big, friendly shapes, and blush pink and navy are saved for small accents. Together they feel more beach bar than boardroom.
The logo pairs a bold, upright TOURISM with a loose, handwritten “on tap”, which is a pretty good summary of the event itself: the business of tourism, done casually. Aleisha designed it to sit comfortably alongside the cafes, bars and brands you see around the Gold Coast, so it looks at home on a venue’s chalkboard as much as in an inbox.
Why build templates into an event brand?
Tourism on Tap happens every second month, and each one needs its own invitation. So alongside the brand, we designed flyer and email invitation templates The Tour Collective can reuse for every event. The team drops in the new date and venue, and every invite looks like part of the same series.
The layout is built to get a yes from a busy operator in a few seconds, with the date, venue and RSVP right where you’d expect them.
How is Tourism on Tap going so far?
Pretty well, and the numbers are heading in the right direction.
“We’ve been absolutely thrilled with the response to Tourism on Tap GC, and it’s fantastic to see the concept continuing to build momentum. Our first event attracted over 60 tourism industry professionals, and we followed that up with more than 85 attendees at Tourism on Tap GC #2. It’s really encouraging to see the growing appetite for this type of relaxed, informal networking across the Gold Coast tourism industry. The response has been incredibly positive, and we’re excited to see Tourism on Tap continue to grow and become a regular fixture on the Gold Coast tourism calendar.”
Clint Gudenswager, Sales Manager, The Tour Collective
What can other tourism brands take from this?
You don’t need to be launching a networking night to borrow from Tourism on Tap. Nor do you need a thoroughly detailed design brief. A new tour, a seasonal product or a sub-brand all face the same challenge: making people understand what you’re about before they’ve read a word. Lead with the feeling you want people to have. Let one clever idea, like a sun icon or a plane window, do the heavy lifting. And build the templates so it still looks this good at event number ten as it did at the first.
Sources
- Australian: Arts Law Centre of Australia, AI and copyright information sheet
- Australian: Macquarie University Library, AI and copyright
