Regional Development Australia Eyre Peninsula

Eyre. The Wild Side.

The Brief

Create a new brand identity that expresses Eyre’s raw, rugged and refreshingly beautiful land.

For 15 years South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula was known as ‘The Seafood Frontier’ thanks to an inherited campaign line developed to hero the seafood industry.

And while the seafood industry and the coastline as a whole remain a major part of what makes the Eyre Peninsula so popular for residents and tourists alike, the peninsula is home to 11 diverse council areas – many of which have no connection to the coast.

So, in 2022, the Regional Development Australia Eyre Peninsula engaged Fuller to develop a place brand and accompanying place brand identity which could unite it’s 11 councils and evoke pride across the 170,000 square-kilometre peninsula.

We knew in order to get it right, we needed to go deep. Deep into strategy; deep into in-region consultation and deep into the history of this wonderful place.

Over 12 hours and more than 1200km of road-tripping later, our team felt that, in fact, there may just be a place brand that can sum up the richly diverse, ever changing regions that make up the cultural fabric of Eyre.

Services provided
 Insights & Strategy, Brand Story & Identity, Design & Motion Graphics
STRATEGY

Working with recently completed research from The Tourism Collective our Fuller team set out to immerse itself in the region and get to know it’s people.

Across two road trips to Eyre, the team completed four in-region workshops, strategically held in a key inland regional town and a major coastal city to ensure everyone had the opportunity to attend. A mix of business owners, residents (new and old), tourism operators and representatives from the seafood industry were taken through Fuller’s branding philosophy and invited to input into what would be the future place brand for their beloved region.

Ultimately, through these workshops, and from visiting as many front bars, petrol stations, visitor information centres and bakeries as possible, the Fuller team were on a mission to define the purpose and identity of the region: two critical elements of any place brand.

Purpose

The region’s purpose was defined as “To responsibly share our ancient and unique landscapes, wildlife and history with people who will connect with our region on a deeper level – just as we do. They’ll explore it gently, respect it greatly and become fellow, proud custodians of it, ensuring preservation of our land, waters and wildlife and sustainable prosperity for our communities – our children and theirs”.

‘Eyre. The Wild Side’ was created to offer locals an ownable and authentic identity which not only resonated with their own experiences of the region but also helped entice the ‘right’ kind of tourists.

And a brand story was created which set out to encapsulate the essence of Eyre and why it should be proudly known as South Australia’s Wild Side.

Brand Story

“Welcome to Eyre.
Here, things are a little wild.
Our lands. Our waters. Our night skies.
The sheer size of it all can be a little intimidating.
But give us a chance and you’ll see –
we’re truly a place of gentle giants.
Full of adventures waiting to be had across
ancient lands begging to be explored.
So, come visit – but tread gently.
We’re only this wonderful because our people
respect their lands so that they can be kept raw,
rugged and refreshingly wild.”

We used the region’s perceived weaknesses and turned them into key assets that not only made Eyre unique, but would create a desire among tourists to ‘discover their Wild Side’.

Eyre: The Wild Side was born—
an identity which promised travellers the opportunity to step outside their comfort zone and uncover their wild side.

With a heartfelt place brand story and foundations to match, we shared our findings with our design team allowing them a deep understanding of and appreciation for the region and what an identity had to look and feel like.

It was clear from our in-region consultation as well as additional online feedback formats we offered that Eyre’s diverse districts necessitated a flexible brand identity capable of encompassing their unique personalities, along with a logo that defied trends and literal symbols, and offered a timeless design.

The new identity was an expression of Eyre’s raw, rugged and refreshingly beautiful land. A bespoke font, inspired by local signage and nuances from around the region, was created to give Eyre a distinct look and feel. It was complemented by unique signage templates for each of the districts and an immersive brand film that told the story of Eyre’s ‘wild side.’

The custom fonts “Gaffa Wild” and “Gaffa
Mild” draw inspiration from the rugged Eyre
Peninsula signage. While “Gaffa Wild”
exudes an untamed aesthetic with
overlapping, tape-like letters, resulting in a
strikingly distressed appearance, “Gaffa
Mild” draws from hand-painted road signs,
employing straight lines for practicality in
documents, signage and collateral.

Ligatures empower the creation of personalised letter combinations for place names, districts and headlines, facilitating the versatile application of the custom font by in-house designers across a multitude of contexts. Moreover, they nurture the potential for engagement from local communities and businesses, further embracing this distinctive identity.

Overall, the project was of deep consultation; long drives and many, many wonderful locals who were kind enough to trust us with creating a new identity for the lands they loved and protected.

In 2023 ‘Eyre. The Wild Side’ took out an AADC Award for Static Typography.

It was also awarded the 2023 Tourism Industry Council South Australia (TICSA) award for Tourism Marketing and Campaigns and is now in the running for the National Award next year.

Fuller would like to thank the region of Eyre and the team at Regional Development Australia Eyre Peninsula.

“When this project started there were many diverse stakeholders with conflicting opinions. Past attempts to rebrand the Eyre Peninsula had failed to produce a result that was accepted by the collective community. It was a beautiful thing to witness Team Fuller not only win the trust of the biggest sceptics but turn them into advocates for the project. There is no doubt that Fuller’s talent for genuine stakeholder engagement, and ability to bring everyone along on the journey was instrumental to the project’s success.

Fuller are brilliant brand strategists, designers, and storytellers. I witnessed Fuller’s incredible talent for uncovering a destinations’ unique identity, turning perceived weaknesses into strengths, and creating a compelling and authentic brand proposition. To see the eyes of community members brim with tears of pride as they hear the Eyre brand story is testament to Fuller’s ability to create brands that make you feel. The resulting brand 100% captures the essence of the Eyre Penisula, presents a compelling proposition to attract visitors, and positions the destination for success.

There is no other agency I would want to go on this crazy, fun, and rewarding rebranding journey with!”

 

Annabelle Hender

Tourism Development Manager