Learn to Skate
A refresh of the marketing materials,
introducing newcomers to the world of ice skating.
Louisville Skating Academy
4 months
December 22, 2024
Graphic Designer
CONTEXT
A visual approach to figure skating.
Learn to Skate (LTS) is a program that coaches from LSA teach before the transition to private ice skating lessons and jumpstarting their skating career. Basic ice skating skills are taught to people of all ages and abilities. Creating the printed materials provides a faster, streamlined process of finding information about the program.
PROBLEMS
If I can’t see it, I don’t know about it
When doing initial interviews with the guardians of the skaters when hearing about the Learn to Skate program, most of the marketing in the rink for the Learn to Skate program was word of mouth, and no real advertisements were posted throughout the facility.
Limited Public Ads
Advertisements for the shows were non-existent to help promote the show. This created a lack of new audience and communication between the organization and public ice skaters.
Lack of Rep In-Building
Seeing the Louisville Skating Academy members’ involvements in action was lacking during the time of promotion for the show. A lot was happening behind-the-scenes, but more of the public visuals leading up to the show were non-existent.
Narrow Audience
Audience members are mostly the skaters’ families coming in to watch their relatives skate. This creates a limited reach for newer, potential skaters to join for the next year’s production or to simply watch the show.
Challenge
Create more of an outreach for newer, potential audience members and skaters to watch the show. Hopefully, this will also funnel in newer customers to join the Learn To Skate program to eventually join the next year’s production and increase the community.
Design Solutions
Utilize Visuals
Using photography of skaters’ involvement in the show to help visualize the show and give a sneak peek of what the show will look like.
Quick, Digestible Info
Creating quick and easily readable information to quickly get the main information across about the shows. Help increase attention of the show within the holiday season during heavy traffics of public skating sessions to draw in new audience members.
Community Involvement
Involving Louisville Skating Academy’s members within the advertisements from the past year of shows helps incentivize the skaters’ involvement and performances in the show, creating a boost of morale, camraderie, and anticipation for the future show.
Regular creations of the posters for non-anniversary years highlight all types of skates, from beginner skaters to professional skaters, from 3 years old to 60+.
The 20th-anniversary posters were inspired by Taylor Swift’s era tour posters to celebrate a variety of the Claras that participated in past productions.
Bookmarks
Highlighting all types of skaters who perform in the show creates an incentive for future skaters to participate and have themselves reflected in the posters for advertisements. These posters are shown inside the facility and various other locations where the organization does its pop-up shows.
CAPTION
CAPTIONSmall flyer handouts advertise the show during public ice sessions inside the facility or at outside ice rinks around Louisville, such as Paristown. The skaters skate on public ice or have a small show in Paristown to garner awareness among newer audience members for the actual show.
Display Boards
Promotes actual visuals of the show with condensed information for the event.
Encourages skaters to engage inside and outside of the community to showcase their performances.
Updating the Nutcracker logo was another factor in redesigning the visuals of the brand. This makes the graphic more functional when used with the advertisements for brand visibility. The visuals from the skaters themselves take the focus, so the graphic being a tertiary element made for the revision of the logo to be one color.
Flyers
OLD LOGO FOR THE SHOW
NEW LOGO FOR THE SHOWUnlocks more creative uses of the graphics, leading to flexible changes for advertisements and branding of the event.
Girl Scout Day & Learn to Skate
Updating the Nutcracker logo was another factor in redesigning the visuals of the brand. This makes the graphic more functional when used with the advertisements for brand visibility. The visuals from the skaters themselves take the focus, so the graphic being a tertiary element made for the revision of the logo to be one color.
Left: complimentary shirts
middle: girl scout skating
right: girl scout goodie bags
Bottom: girl scout day freeskate
Unlocks more creative uses of the graphics, leading to flexible changes for advertisements and branding of the event.
LOOKING AHEAD
Retrospective
MEASURING SUCCESS
Promoting the show with posters increased the facility's awareness of the event by 73%, garnering more attention to the show. Public pop-up shows with advertisements reached 35% more awareness. The show itself reach a 21% increase in sales.
For reels and social media posts, highlighting the theatrics of the show and skaters’ potential garners excitement and interest for new customers.
Project takeaways.
Passive to Active— Good design often goes unnoticed and unspoken, but exceptional design or a shift in approach fosters conversation, which is essential for growth and change. Gaining public attention doesn’t initiate change, but appealing to the hearts of skaters and their guardians through the posters created a sense of gratitude and movement within the design itself. This inspired a proactive community to keep the tradition of producing these posters alive.
UX in Real Life— Creating social interaction with design marks the user experience for both the consumer and the skaters involved in the advertisements. Designing for communication and showcasing a community can be the passive product of the user experience aside from the UX we know digitally.
A Picture is Worth 1,000 Words— Simple is best in designs like these, where the main visuals come from the skaters themselves with visual hierarchy in typography. There were times when making complex designs made it harder for the audience to see what the show truly was for, so stripping the distracting elements and honing all the focus on the sport itself was key.
