ocreations designs fourth Official Visitors Guide for Visit Pittsburgh

Since 2013, ocreations has been working with Visit Pittsburgh to design their annual Official Visitors Guide – or the “OVG,” as we like to call it. In February, we celebrated the launch of the 2016 Official Visitors Guide. While the 2016 OVG was our fourth run around the Visit Pittsburgh block, it was by far our biggest and coolest OVG for them yet.

When our friends from Visit Pittsburgh came to us for this year’s OVG, they told us they wanted it to be a celebration of the 200th anniversary of Pittsburgh being incorporated as a city. Using this idea as our guiding theme, the 2016 OVG and its design pays homage to the old and the new in Pittsburgh.

In addition to capturing Pittsburgh’s distinctive history and character, we also wanted to create a publication design that was equal parts unique, polished, fun, and friendly, while still being as functional and informative as a visitors guide should be.

This was no small task, but it was a challenge ocreations was eager to accept. With designer Nina Zivkovic taking the lead on the project, we knew that the 2016 Official Visitors Guide was in good hands. Nina designed the majority of the OVG, including the impressive die cut cover exposing an illustration of old Pittsburgh, and – our personal favorite – the three-page, pull-out timeline insert.

Just a few of the other cool features of this publication design include:

  • Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood-inspired “Pittsburgh is KIDSburgh” section
  • A map of Visit Pittsburgh’s Welcome Centers designed to look like a gameboard
  • The back cover selfie with Pittsburgh’s favorite mascots together in the same picture, which ocreations proudly coordinated

A project with as many original design features as this one is certainly quite the undertaking. Here at ocreations though, what we love about big projects is that the reward of seeing them in their final, published form is even bigger. We could not be more excited or proud of how well the 2016 Official Visitors Guide turned out.

Be sure to check it out for yourself! You can experience the 2016 OVG (for free!) by going to Visit Pittsburgh’s website and accessing the digital version or requesting your own printed copy.

If you have a unique theme in mind for your publication like Visit Pittsburgh did, or if your publication just needs fresh look, contact ocreations today and see what we can “ocreate” for you.

 

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Die cut cover for the 2016 Official Visitors Guide. The cut-out exposes an illustration of old Pittsburgh, revealing the theme of this year’s publication.

pittsburgh-publication-design-visit-pittsburgh-2016-bicentennial-page

ocreations designed this opening page, which is part of the tear-out timeline, to introduce the Pittsburgh Bicentennial celebration as the theme of the 2016 Official Visitors Guide.

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Covering Pittsburgh’s history from 1816-2016, this timeline, designed by Nina, is a three-page spread packed with information and pictures that are masterfully laid out to maintain a clean, uncluttered look and feel. In the print version of the OVG, you can even tear it out to display it!

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This map of Visit Pittsburgh’s Welcome Centers throughout the city was designed to look like a gameboard in order to highlight the welcoming, family-friendly side of the city.

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Accommodations comparison chart. ocreations designed many easy-to-read and eye-catching charts, like this one, for the 2016 Official Visitors Guide. In keeping with the Bicentennial theme, this page design features a sidebar about the history of one of Pittsburgh’s oldest downtown hotels.

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Back cover of the 2016 Official Visitors Guide. ocreations designed every aspect of this back cover, right down to coordinating the actual photo of all of Pittsburgh’s favorite mascots!