The Challenge
To design ski cards for SnowMax. These cards would allow skiers and snowboarders four free day passes and discounts on day passes for an entire season at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort and Panorama Mountain Village. The cards would be available up until Christmas every year. Atom Graphics was required to work with contacts at both resorts to come up with an approved design for the plastic cards and paper backings. The program also included promotional postcards, print ads in many publications, and POS signage for Mac’s stores.
The Solution
These cards, first available for the 2006 / 2007 ski season, were originally created by Atom Graphics, which has since designed updated cards for every season. Since this was a partnership between Kicking Horse and Panorama, the cards had to have their own design that did not favour the current branding for either resort. The cards had to command attention when seen on a rack at a Mac’s store; a very visually competitive environment. Coming up with a treatment for the name ‘SnowMax’ was also required. Photography options were provided by the resorts and Atom Graphics helped select the most exciting image. The sweeping lines are a design element used on all SnowMax materials. They suggest speed, slopes, and ski tracks. Since the cards advertise themselves in convenience stores, they needed to have ‘4 days free’ worked into the layout. Four numbers along the side allow employees at both resorts to easily punch a hole indicating which free days have been used.
The Results
These cards are sold at Mac’s Convenience Stores, resort ticket windows, and ski shows across Alberta and British Columbia. The result is an attractive card that gets people in the mood for skiing, and successfully competes for attention in Mac’s stores.
