Thursday, 1 June 2006 | Levent OZLER

New Killington Brand Identity: Leaves it all on the Mountain

A steep blue slash races downhill like a fall line through Killington Vermont's (American Skiing Company, ASC) stylish new logo visually reinforcing the resort's tagline, "Leave it all on the mountain." Killington's new identity is a creation of New York City-based branding consultancy firm Sterling Brands.

With the Killington (American Skiing Company, ASC) brand facing increasing competition from within and outside the region, the longtime east coast ski resort leader commissioned Sterling Brands to update its brand essence to be more relevant to today's skiers.

"We were asked to rebrand Killington, to redefine its overall positioning and personality, which is all about 'leaving it all on the mountain,' in other words ski hard, play hard, party hard, and to develop a new identity that could translate to all brand communications; from on-mountain signage, tickets, apparel, banners, website, advertising, collateral, everything" said Sterling Brands' creative director Marcus Hewitt. "To re-energize the Killington identity and give it more edge, we replaced the former logo, a bold K and skinny 'Killington,' with an iconic symbol with the visual potency to re-brand the entire resort."

Since Killington is widely renowned for its fast, challenging runs, the new logo is built on a steep blue streak that narrows as it races down from its' apex to the base of a bold, white-on-black letter "K." "The new identity is all about the energy of the mountain, its dynamism and speed," said Hewitt. "We actually redrew the logo in a bold custom font as if it were speeding from the peak of the mountain to its base."

In preparing its design recommendations, preliminary visual themes were tested in an online survey conducted among 600 skiers whose names were collected from ASC's database of Killington and competitive resort visitors. Three concepts were rated for interest level and overall appeal, with the results providing the strategic and visual direction to revitalize the brand identity. "With our in-house strategic planning team, we were responsible for developing the research program and questionnaire, for analyzing the data and providing strategic recommendations," said Mike Bainbridge, Sterling Brands executive vice president for design intelligence.

"It was a fun project that, unfortunately being a budding snowboarder, had to be completed in the off-season since that was the only time the staff could paint the new logos on the lodges and signage, Killington has four main lodges and many different style buildings so it was an interesting challenge to render and place the logos to best effect."

Sterling Brand Credits
Marcus Hewitt: Creative Director
Stephanie Krompier/Dan Walter: Design Directors
Jonathan Lee/Mike Bainbridge: Planning Directors

About
Sterling Brands is a leading, independently owned branding consultancy with offices in New York, San Francisco and London. Launched in 1992, the firm now has 100 professionals who focus on brand strategy and brand design to develop fresh, inspiring, quality work. Sterling Brands' clients range from AOL and Avon to PepsiCo and Pfizer, to Time Warner, MTV Networks, and Sony.

Sterling Brands: http://www.dexigner.com/directory/detail/7897/