High Country Motor Lodge
Premise
How to encapsulate the spirit of a little-known Arizona motor lodge’s inaugural music festival? Deep dives into classic Route 66 ephemera and roadside motel culture. Good, old fashioned library archival work in search of authentic artifacts. And some truly revelatory aural adventures into country, folk, and psychedelic twang.
Jumping off from High Country Motor Lodge’s existing hospitality brand’s visual language, we built a bespoke festival aesthetic and an end-to-end experience for fans, from a 360 website to souvenir posters.
Goal
One day, then fade away
Hosted at the acclaimed High Country Motor Lodge, the inaugural Flagstaff Fadeaway Festival was a one-day cosmic country music festival that took place September 30, 2023, and benefited the Glen Canyon Institute. The event boasted a remarkable lineup of Color Green, Sylvie, The Senators, Spencer Cullum + Rich Ruth, and Kacy & Clayton, transporting festival-goers through a sonic menagerie of country, folk, and psychedelic twang to create a once in a lifetime music and hospitality experience in the high desert of North Arizona.
“An on-the-beaten-path hotel with an off-the-beaten-path approach to 1960s roadside culture.”
Archival inspiration
We were inspired by found postcards, western showcase flyers, and roadside motel culture. Research into classic Route 66 ephemera was conducted with the help of vast online archives, particularly collections kept by the Phoenix Public Library and the Arizona Historical Society. The final visuals juxtapose clean graphics drawn from these collections with doodles you might find on the page of a hotel stationary pad or a cocktail napkin, which are complemented by colors pulled from the Arizona sunset and vintage film photography.
The festival branding was developed to live alongside High Country Motor Lodge’s existing visual language, and shares key colors and supportive typography styles. The primary typeface used for Fadeaway was built from woodcut type we found in a Flagstaff postcard from the ’50s, complete with charming imperfections characteristic of an oft-used type set.
Three alts were developed for the festival logo, all comprised of custom modular lettering and cursive script. The modular lettering, inspired by the striking geometry found across Arizona architecture, is built from only two shapes—a quarter round and a softened rectangle—creating infinite possibilities for an expanded alphabet, illustrations, and icons. The cursive “fadeaway” lettering is inspired by the embroidery on a pair of well-loved cowboy boots. The logo alts allow for different fills and colors, including a custom rope script option for an extra kick.
Microsite, and souvenirs
We designed and built a bespoke festival website that hosted ticketing, lineup and sponsorship information, and travel resources. The website was developed in-house, and utilized graphics, illustrations, and photo styles drawn from key poster art.
We produced shirts, hats, stickers, and posters for the festival, including wayfinding graphics and souvenir art. Merch imagery was pulled from the library of illustrations we developed throughout the branding process.
