Our primary brand typeface is Helvetica Neue, a contemporary sans serif typeface. Helvetica Neue was not only used in the creation of the logo, it is also the corporate typeface used throughout all our collateral.

Used in four weights and two cases, this typeface provides our brand with a modern simplicity that is visually strong and highly legible.

In the event that it is not possible to use the primary Helvetica Neue typeface, it is permissible to use Arial Condensed as an alternative fall-back typeface.

Prior to use however, the user must first actively seek to obtain the font files for the Helvetica Neue typeface from Destination Gold Coast. This can be done by emailing:

creative@destinationgoldcoast.com

Black Diamond was used in the creation of the We are Gold Coast “Hashtag” device and is to be used sparingly and only under special circumstances.

Users must first seek permission from Destination Gold Coast should they wish to use the Black Diamond typeface within any promotional materials.

Photography is a critical visual component used to express the essence of the Destination Gold Coast brand. A compelling image can capture the imagination of a traveller or provide a glimpse into life on the Gold Coast.

Our research shows people have a stereotypical preconception of the Gold Coast. This preconception is that the Gold Coast is known for saturated blue skies, golden glowing sand and flawless talent. Our destination is so much more than this, which is why our photographic style must always reflect the “REAL”us. The real colour and people of the Gold Coast. The imagery we use affects the way the viewer feels about the Gold Coast. We choose warm tones, combined with natural colour palettes that reflect our diverse landscape. We don’t oversaturate imagery.

Our images are honest, emotionally potent and feature real people. Whether we are capturing a moment of connection between loved ones, the defiant look in the eyes of a surfer about to paddle out, or the contagious giggles of children being children. Our people first approach to imagery conveys a genuine sense of what we stand for - connection, celebration and enrichment.

Note: To obtain Destination Gold Coast approved imagery, users can request access to our Digital Asset Management System by emailing:

creative@destinationgoldcoast.com

The following section contains the proper use of Destination Gold Coast’s brand, visual standards, and application of our corporate and consumer facing identity.

The following pages outline the correct and consistent formatting of branded elements within print materials.

Primary Colour Palette

Black and white are the two colours that make up Destination Gold Coast’s primary colour palette.

Tints of black can be used sparingly. In most cases, a light shade of grey is used as a background colour overlaid with text, only within brochures.

Secondary Colour Palette

The above colours are available as Destination Gold Coast’s secondary colours. They are rarely used in current print materials and should not be used without approval.

Some of these colours are occasionally found on the Destination Gold Coast website.

To maintain readability and visual presence, Destination Gold Coast logos must not appear smaller in width than the listed specifications.

Destination Gold Coast logos must at all times be perfectly legible, without obstruction. A minimum area of clear space around all Destination Gold Coast logos must be maintained.

Refer to the diagram (right) to calculate minimum area of clear space that must surround Destination Gold Coast logos.

• Clear space above and below the logo (X), must be equal to that of the Destination Gold Coast logos total height, at the size the logo appears within the design.
• Clear space on either side of the logo (Y), must be equal to that of the letter ‘O’ width, at the size it appears within the design.

The following examples provide a range of situations that demonstrate how Destination Gold Coast logos can be displayed within various print material layouts.

Please note that logos can either sit in the centre or range left, within a layout. The logo should always sit in the upper half of the layout and never at the foot of the page, unless approved by Destination Gold Coast Digital Brand and Content Team.

It is also important to point out that the Destination Gold Coast logo should always be highly legible when overlaid on imagery.

The designer is responsible for achieving a favourable image crop so that the logo is of appropriate size, has high contrast, is free from visual clutter and balanced within the composition as per Examples A, B, C, D and E.

When determining how a Destination Gold Coast image should be cropped, the designer should employ the “rule of thirds”.

The rule of thirds is an essential photographic technique. It can be applied to any subject matter to improve composition and balance. Applying the rule of thirds means the subject matter within the image is not centred, instead, the focal point is positioned to one side.

This technique not only draws the viewer’s eye into the composition, it also accommodates the effective placement of logos and typographic elements.

The diagram on the far right (Example B) demonstrates how the rule of thirds has been applied to crop the original image (Example A) within an A4 press advertisement.

The diagram on the far right demonstrates how the rule of thirds has been applied to crop the original image (Example A) within a promotional postcard (Example B).

Note: To obtain Destination Gold Coast approved imagery, users can request access to our Digital Asset Management System by emailing:

creative@destinationgoldcoast.com

Destination Gold Coast
Paragraph Styles

It is Destination Gold Coast’s intention to make sure all copy within its promotional materials is professionally typeset, is pleasing to the eye and highly legible.

The following guide shows the range of paragraph styles Destination Gold Coast print materials employ, as well as the formatting options available.

Due to the myriad of promotional materials Destination Gold Coast produces, specific typographical formatting such as point size, leading and space-after are not prescribed. Instead, it is the responsibility of the designer to professionally typeset copy guided by the examples of specific formatting found in the following pages.

Example 1 - Print Advertisement

The ‘Helvetica Neue Condensed’ typeface family must always be used in the creation of Destination Gold Coast print advertisements.

The example on the right demonstrates how copy in a print advertisement should be typeset.

See next page for specifications and executions of Destination Gold Coast typographic formatting for this print advertisement.

Note: It’s imperative that copy is not placed over the main subject matter of the image. The designer is responsible for achieving a favourable image crop so that copy is readable, but also balanced within the composition, as per the example on the right.

Example 1 - Print Advertisement (cont)

Please note the typesetting specifications for the tagline, time and location, body copy and call-to-actions within an A4 print advertisement.

The tagline, time and location, body copy and call-to-actions are individual paragraphs, that when typeset as per the example on the right, act as a single visual unit.

Because print advertisements range in size, text formatting (point size, leading etc.) will vary from the listed specifications. In this case, the designer must consider the available space within the layout and resize the individual paragraphs as a group so that the proportions and spacing of the unit are maintained.

Example 1 - Print Advertisement (cont)

Please note the design specifications for the vertical line and location icon within an A4 print advertisement.

The vertical line and location icon are individual graphic elements that unify the visual unit and form part of Destination Gold Coast’s visual language.

The designer must group these graphical elements with the paragraphs and resize the visual unit as a whole so that proportions and spacing are maintained.

Example 2 - Brochure

The example on the right demonstrates how copy in an incentive brochure is typeset.

See the next page for specifications and executions of Destination Gold Coast typographic formatting for this brochure.

Example 2 - Brochure (cont)

Please note the typesetting specifications for the heading, circle/number, subheading, body copy and pull-out quote.

Example 3 - Postcard

The example on the right demonstrates how the copy on the reverse side of a promotional postcard should be typeset.

Weight, size, spacing, case and alignment is used to distinguish headings, subheadings, pull-out quotes, body copy, bullet points and call-to-action to achieve an obvious visual hierarchy in line with Destination Gold Coast’s typographic formatting.

Example 1 - Postcard (cont)

Please note the typesetting specifications for the heading, body copy, bullet points and call-to-action.

In the case of this postcard, the text has been typeset under the following considerations:

• Amount of provided copy
• The physical size of the postcard

Based on these considerations, point size, leading and space after is different from other promotional materials so that an equal spread of information and overall visual balance was achieved in relation the postcards physical size.

That said, it is important to note consistencies across each of the paragraph styles.

• The subheading is only 1pt larger than the other paragraph styles
• All paragraph styles are the same point size, with the exception of the subheading
• The leading is consistent across all paragraph styles
• 2mm space-after has been used to space copy formatted with the same paragraph style
• The space-after different paragraph styles is greater than 2mm so as to visually separate a new block of information

Pull-out quotes draw attention to valuable pieces of information and can appear either on a white background (Example A) or overlay an image (Example B). They can also feature within a page layout as a typographic inset (Example C).

Whenever a pull-out quote is used, the Destination Gold Coast quotation marks should appear centred, above, and below the quote.

The indicated quotation marks are unique to Destination Gold Coast, therefore no other quotation marks can be used.

Designers should use the examples provided on this page as a visual guide to determine the spacing and size of the quotation marks in relation to the quote.

The quotation marks artwork files can be found within the style guide package.

The following outlines Destination Gold Coast’s visual standards, proper use, application and the correct and consistent formatting of branded elements within digital channels.

Primary Colour Palette

Black and white are the two colours that make up Destination Gold Coast’s primary colour palette.

Tints of black can be used sparingly. In most cases, a light shade of grey is used as a background colour overlaid with text, only within brochures.

Secondary Colour Palette

The above colours are available as Destination Gold Coast’s secondary colours. They are rarely used in current print materials and should not be used without approval.

Some of these colours are occasionally found on the Destination Gold Coast website.

To maintain readability and visual presence, all Destination Gold Coast logos must not appear smaller in width than the listed specifications.

Destination Gold Coast logos must at all times be perfectly legible, without obstruction. A minimum area of clear space around all Destination Gold Coast logos must be maintained.

Refer to the diagram (right) to calculate minimum area of clear space that must surround Destination Gold Coast logos.

• Clear space above and below the logo (X), must be equal to that of the Destination Gold Coast logos total height, at the size the logo appears within the design.
• Clear space on either side of the logo (Y), must be equal to that of the letter ‘O’ width, at the size it appears within the design.

The following section contains the technical specifications for the Destination Gold Coast website.

Home page content structure

The Destination Gold Coast home page consists of a hierarchical content structure that is dictated by the main menu structure. This ensures an effective user experience with important information kept as high as possible while allowing essential supplementary content to be accessible as the user moves down the page.

A significant majority of users don’t scroll down to see the whole page when visiting sites (especially returning visitors), so critical content (i.e. call-to-actions, site search) should always be ‘above the fold’ (visible on page load). Critical page content should be in the top 680px of the site.

The basic content structure should consist of 5 sections:

1. Navigation
2. Promotional slider or header image
3. Page introductory copy
4. Page content body
5. Footer

For a contemporary and functional experience across all new websites, a responsive, mobile-first fluid grid system should be implemented. This should appropriately scale up to 12 columns as the device or browser size increases.

This allows a consistent experience for all screen sizes and gives an accessible, industry standard framework that will future-proof the build of all new websites for Destination Gold Coast.

To maintain website proportions, the grid is set to a max content width of 1140px with 40px column padding for desktop and 20px column padding for mobile.

Note: While the grid for content is locked to a maximum 1140px for desktop, features such as header images, parallax images, carousels and background colours can continue to expand with the browser size to create a contemporary view.

Desktop columns & content blocks

The 12 columns can be divided into content blocks. The grid allows for a diverse array of content blocks to keep layouts and templates visually engaging.

All 12 columns sit within the grid with 20px inner padding (desktop). Each content block is separated by 40px column padding. This ensures all content has consistent alignment.

Tablet & small desktop columns & content blocks

Due to the lower resolution of tablets, the amount of available columns is reduced. This should be considered when designing new assets to keep important content as high on the page as possible.

Mobile columns & content blocks

The 2 columns within the mobile grid create only two content blocks. In most situations however, a single content column should be used.

Spacing throughout each layout is based on natural incremental divisions of the 40px gutter.

For example, to maintain a strong visual aesthetic use spacing of either:

• 40 pixels
• 20 pixels
• 10 pixels
• 5 pixels

Example desktop content layout

1. Margin: 20px
2. Column padding: 40px
3. Content block spacing: 40px and 20px
4. Content padding: 20px

Example mobile content layout

5. Margin: 10px
6. Column padding: 20px
7. Content block spacing: 10px
8. Content padding: 20px

When applying colour to website pages, white is the primary and most used colour. This creates a clean and consistent design for our digital assets.

Digital assets should follow a 60:40 ratio rule where 60% of the page is white, and the other 40% is a combination of other brand and background colours.

This approach ensures maximum contrast for website imagery and brand colours.

Note: Images are not included in the 60:40 rule, but they should still adhere to brand guidelines outlined on page 15.

There are three main types of buttons to cover all design purposes.

Primary Button

Alternate Primary Button

A standard button format. This button should be used when clear visibility of the button is an issue, mainly over busy images where the primary button loses impact.

Secondary Button

The secondary button is used for call-to-actions such as ‘Book Online’ and ‘Read More’.

Mobile and Tablet Buttons

Buttons for mobile and tablet should follow the same style and interaction rules as set for desktop. For optimal usability on touch devices, button sizes should be enlarged to accommodate for imprecise interaction.

Destination Gold Coast website paragraph styles

It is Destination Gold Coast’s intention to ensure all copy used for digital assets is professionally typeset, pleasing to the eye and highly legible.

The following guide lists the range of paragraph styles the Destination Gold Coast website employs, and the correct formatting for each.

Please note the typesetting specifications for large title; intro paragraph; H3 sub-title of card; standard paragraph; H2 subtitle; and tile body.