Helping Alabama’s leaders and citizens understand, imagine, and activate outdoor recreation opportunities.Every five years, states are required to update their Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan (SCORP).The SCORP is an important statewide planning document that identifies regional and statewide outdoor recreation needs and opportunities. It also sets a collective strategy for statewide partners to work together to enhance the delivery of outdoor recreation services to citizens.Creating this document requires plenty of effective public engagement.A big task in normal times made all the more difficult because of the COVID-19 pandemic.H+W helped the University of Alabama’s Center for Economic Development design and create an online platform and workshops to empower engagement, facilitate conversation and collect input.Once the data was crunched we supported UACED with design and layout of the SCORP document.We are also providing ongoing support to aid the rollout via a website and graphic design, aimed at sharing the outdoor recreation stories and opportunities emerging throughout Alabama.This 14-month planning process involved the input of over 2,000 Alabama residents, 800 recreation providers, and 60 key stakeholder organizations who participated in surveys and facilitated meetings that UACED conducted.By embracing the strategic goals and their associated objectives detailed in the report, and integrating them into the planning, development, and operation of outdoor recreation projects, we can have confidence that we are working toward meeting the public’s outdoor recreation needs and desires in a meaningful way.

Giving 6150 acres a voiceCreating and implementing the interpretive design experience for Alabama’s Gulf State Park brought out the best in our project management skills. It also allowed H+W to utilize everything we’ve learned in our careers–design, research, writing, illustration, and photography–on a huge scale.After we launched the award-winning website for the Park enhancement project, we got busy telling the story of this unique destination. Our role as the interpretive design experience lead included managing, creating, and implementing a park-wide interpretive story package.Over the course of two and a half years on the project, we wrote thousands of words and designed more than 500 moments of discovery throughout Gulf State Park.  Gulf State Park is an exceptional place. The park is nestled in between two popular tourist destinations, Orange Beach and Gulf Shores. Not only is it one of the last natural places left along the Gulf Coast, but it’s also one of the most environmentally diverse. These 6,100+ acres begin in the warm Gulf waters and stretch northward to include white sandy beaches, ancient dunes, wetlands, lakes, sand scrub, pine savannas, and the majestic maritime forest.2016, 2018 American Graphic Design AwardsServices provided:Brand StrategyExhibit DesignGraphic DesignCopywritingPhotographyIllustrationProject ManagementWebsite Design + Development

Helping a small but mighty CVB in a fast-growing region find its voice, and empowering them with the tools needed to celebrate and share its story.Located an hour west of Washington DC at the top of the Shenandoah Valley, Berkeley County WV sits at the heart of the tri-state area. Today they are at the crossroads of a long history and large population growth. As such their brand voice and their tools needed an update to help align and enable their staff and partners to better connect with residents and tourists. Getting to the heart of the matter.We began by auditing their existing brand messaging and building an understanding of how the current outreach tools challenged staff and volunteers. Refreshed copy and image tone brought new energy to the CVB’s story-telling approach. We brought these updates to life through a new travel guide, updated social media channels, and a website overhaul. We were also right there beside the CVB as they began to implement the new brand during the pandemic. Overseeing this rebrand launch in 2020 required additional support to ensure that we were meeting visitors where they were and that our messages aligned with broader state tourism efforts.