Duluth, Minnesota Visitor Guide
2020 Duluth Visitor Guide
Project: The Official Guide to Duluth, Minnesota
Skills & Technology: Online Application Development (PHP/MySQL/HTML), Copywriting, Photo Sourcing and Editing, Design and Layout (Illustrator/Photoshop/InDesign), Print Coordination, Production and Proofing
Project Summary:
Visit Duluth publishes an annual Visitor Guide showcasing all the city has to offer and providing listings for each of the organization’s 400+ partners. With over 125,000 guides distributed annually, the 80-page Visitor Guide is one of the largest projects produced by Visit Duluth each year.
Concept/Execution:
Production of the Visitor Guide had been outsourced until I was hired by Visit Duluth and took on the project internally, saving the organization a significant portion of their marketing budget that was previously being spent on agency fees for production of the Visitor Guide.
My first step was to streamline the collection of listing information for each of the 400+ partner listings that are included in the guide. I created a custom web-based Content Management System (CMS) to allow each partner to log in, review and edit their listing and submit the approved final listing online. I created code to format and display the submitted data in a simple web layout that could be imported into InDesign to produce the final listings directly from the collected data.
I developed the distinctive masthead for the publication’s cover, and am responsible for photo selection and editing for each new edition. To begin the production process each year, I design a new sample page spread to be used as the basis for the year’s featured content. I research, write, and edit copy for the articles, collect, organize, and edit photos and create all of the final page layouts for the project. I prepare the files for print and work directly with the commercial printer to select paper, review the printed proofs, and approve the project for production.
During the years I have been responsible for creating the Visitor Guide, it has been the #1 Visitor Guide selected at information kiosks at the Mall of America and the Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport.
