CASE STUDY: Visitor Guide Redesign – Transforming a Misaligned Asset Into a Flagship Publication

For more than a decade, Visit Winona’s annual Visitor Guide was developed within a partnership department that had no formal marketing or editorial experience. While well-intentioned, the structure left one of the city’s most visible brand assets without the creative direction, design leadership, or strategic oversight needed to function as an effective marketing tool.

The guide changed frequently but rarely improved: shifting cover fonts with no adherence to brand standards, rigid thumbnail grids, long lists with minimal narrative, and valuable space dedicated to low-impact elements such as a full-page mayor’s column and a static event calendar. Despite ongoing concerns about relevance and usability, attempts to modernize the publication stalled year after year.

Once oversight transitioned to the marketing function, the opportunity finally emerged to realign the guide with contemporary destination marketing practices.

Our team set out to reimagine the Visitor Guide entirely. The mandate was to transform a directory-style booklet into an editorial product capable of inspiring travel, strengthening brand perception, and reflecting Winona’s cultural and visual richness.

We approached the guide as a magazine-quality publication—story-driven, intuitive, and visually compelling.

The redesigned guide concept unleashed the full talent of Jenna Brinkman, a contract graphic designer, and introduced bold photography, clean typography, immersive narrative sections, and a more natural flow. Long lists were replaced with features, itineraries, cultural spotlights, and “visitor favorites” that showcased Winona’s character. The outdated event calendar became a “By the Seasons” section that delivered far greater storytelling value within the same page space.

The book expanded from 48 to 74 pages, and partner ads—previously isolated in the back of the book—were strategically integrated throughout the editorial content to enhance visibility and impact, as well as to provide a better value to the partners who purchased them.

The redesign delivered immediate results:

• Increased visitor engagement and demand for printed copies
• Record-setting ad sales that more than offset production costs
• Strong growth in partnership numbers thanks to enthusiasm over the visibility that the new guide design offered their businesses
• Recognition of the guide as one of Winona’s most compelling brand touchpoints

What had been an outdated, list-based booklet became a dynamic, widely praised editorial publication—proof that aligning responsibility with expertise and applying focused creative leadership can transform an overlooked tool into a powerful driver of destination perception.