Graphic Design for Marketing 2012 Class Convocation Photo

GDMA Class Grad Photo

with Ken Hughes, Instructor and GDMA Coordinator

Thursday, May 28th, 2012 was convocation day at Kwantlen Polytechnic University!

A special thanks to my family, friends, fellow students and all the GDMA faculty and staff that helped me through the past four years!

Learn more about Kwantlen’s Graphic Design for Marketing program and the 2012 graduating class at our degree show website http://www.gdma.ca/gdma2012/.

- Paul Phillip Wittal, B.Des

After reflecting on the post presentation feedback I’ve decided to make some minor changes to the look and feel of the brand. The YaleHouse hostel needs to have a modern and friendly feel but needs to better reflect the heritage of the Yaletown neighbourhood. I would like to take the brand more towards the direction of a modern spin on late 19th centre Vancouver heritage.

Historic Vancouver Map, possible brand inspiration.

Three hostels I’ve stayed provide the exceptional level of amenities and accommodation expected from a boutique hostel and embody similar brand values to the YaleHouse hostel.

Wombat’s City Hostel – Munich, Germany

Wombat’s has four locations in three European countries; the first time I visited Munich the hostel had been booked up for months and is the most popular hostel in the city. The second time I was in Munich I booked in advance and got to see first hand why Wombat’s Munich is so popular.

The hostel has clean simple rooms that are adequate but not special. Wombat’s Munich instead focuses on the common amenities and service they provide. The hostel has a large reception desk staffed by friendly locals who posses inside knowledge of the city and organize social events such as city walks and pub crawls. Wombat’s provides guests with lots of common space including a lively private bar, games room and a solarium lounge with an indoor garden. They also provide a free breakfast buffet and internet work stations.

Wombat's City Hostel - Munich, Solarium Lounge

Urbany Hostels – Barcelona, Spain

I found the Urbany hostel in Barcelona to be among the best hostels I’ve ever stayed at. It’s a newer hostel and has not yet been established as the leading hostel in the city, but perhaps it never will be as Urbany is unfortunately located just outside the city centre. Urbany’s quality and amenities do make up for its less desirable location.

The hostel has very modern, clean rooms with keycard access to the rooms and lockers. Urbany also has top notch amenities including a large open concept common room with a bar, huge rooftop patio, guest kitchen, free computer access, free breakfast, an indoor pool and a fitness centre. The hostel staff also organize actives for guests such as theme nights, tours and pub crawls.

Urbany Hostels - Barcelona, Rooftop Patio

Sydney Central YHA – Sydney, Australia

Australia is well known for its hostel culture, the YHA is the Australian Youth Hostel Association and has operates hundreds of hostels through out Australia. The Sydney Central YHA is among the largest YHA locations and one of Sydney’s most popular hostels. The scale of this hostel is quite a bit larger than the YaleHouse but provides comparable amenities.

Much like Wombat’s in Munich the Sydney Central YHA has baisc rooms but exceptional amenities. The large size of the hostel alows them to provide more extravagen amenities such as a roof top swiming pool and a movie theatre.  Sydney Central YHA also has an inhouse travel agency, television lounge, a variety of common areas, a cafe, bar, free internet access, free breakfast and the friendly local staff organize daily activies for guests.

Sydney Central YHA - Rooftop Pool

At the luncheon event Rick spoke about his life prior to his injury, his motivation and the challenges he faced. For me the most valuable lessons I took away from hearing him speak was his positive attitude and his advice, about not focusing on limitations but instead what you are capable of. I also like this quote: “there’s a difference between taking risks and being reckless.”

It was a great event, and I’d like to thank my LOT mentor Ian Cruickshank for organizing the tickets for this event.

I had the honour of meeting Rick Hansen.

I intent to focus the research phase of this project on five primary questions:

What basic criteria makes a hostel successful?

How do independent hostels and boutique hotels from around the world market and brand themselves?

What value do hostel guest places on social interaction, activities and engagement in local culture?

What local attractions and amenities within the Yaletown neighbourhood would appeal to the hostels target audience?

What design style would be most appropriate for the target audience and location of the hostel?

View of Vancouver's Yaletown neighbourhood

The first consideration is who will be using this map and for what purpose? After some consideration and research I concluded that the map will be used primarily by Casca’s passengers and prospective passengers to reference their location relative to their destination, and to locate available transfers and connections along the route. This seems fairly obvious but understanding the context and purpose of the component is essential before starting any design work.

I took inspiration railway and transit maps in use around the world. In August 2011 I had the privilege of attending the Connecting Communities summit on Transportation as a student delegate where I was introduced to the work of author Mark Ovenden. Ovenden has worked as a graphic designer and public transportation architect; his books “Transit Maps of the World” and “Railway Maps of the World” were a terrific resource.

Rather than design a geographically accurate route map I’ve opted to create a route diagram. Info graphics like route diagrams are common on railway and transit lines around the world; London’s Tube Map is a particularly good example of a non-geographicly accurate route diagram.

Early Version of the Casca Route Diagram