By Erin Weber
A couple weeks ago, Willy Wong, the senior vice president and creative director at NYC & Company, New York City’s marketing and tourism organization, presented his work to a group of AIGA designers at the Apple Store in SoHo. As New Yorkers, we often take for granted the importance of maintaining the unique value of New York in the eyes of tourists who bring a significant amount of revenue to our city. Wong’s job is to keep them coming while also making sure New Yorkers continue to cherish all that our ‘hometown’ has to offer. Wong taught strategic management as a young professional and then studied graphic design during graduate school at Yale. For the past three years, he has been managing the complex marketing of New York City.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nh4fVjw-os0]
His challenge began with the design of a recognizable mark. After a competitive analysis of other national and international tourist destinations and a design audit of the 1,800 agencies and organizations which are members of NYC & Company, the iconic block letters were chosen because of their flexibility of configuration, pattern and use. Wong’s team designs everything from internationally placed tourism advertisements, to promotion of large-scale events like the New York City Marathon and an engaging annual report for the reference of the NYC & Company’s many stakeholders. One of their projects included the branding and marketing of an awareness campaign called GreenNYC. One of the related advertisements can be viewed above.
See more at: http://nycgo.com/
