NOT A PORTFOLIO, BUT A JOURNEY!
03- SICILY MON AMOUR
SHORT-CUT: salty lakes and pink flamingos surround a timeless family house on the seaside; the bond of an old friendship, and a passionate yoga instructor willing to enlighten his native land's traditions and mind set.
BLOWING IDEAS IN THE WINDMILLS: THE BRAINSTORMING
Once I arrived at the Cantunera Barbara, two things immediately came to my mind! What a sunny land and what a unique environment! Piero, an old friend whom I met while working in resorts, had some ideas boiling since he back to live in his native land and wanted to BRAINSTORM about them.
He got this family country house, right in the middle of a protected bird reserve, where the flamingos fly to rest and mute in pink color their plumage, and the ancient windmills are still draining seawater in the tubes to produce the purest Italian salt.
He wanted to start his hospitality activity while teaching yoga. He also wanted to market the products of this region, incredibly rich and varied but still little known, and he wanted to do that for the good of his own community. He called this pot of ideas LimoneRosso and he was already starting his IG storytelling.
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But also he was very recently back there in the village, happy to restart his life with very personal intent, and as usual, he was literally an explosion of IDEAS and willpower! Of course, I was curious about this "back in Sicily- stage" and I accepted to spend some time in the little village of Nubia, in the middle of the well-known WWF area of The Saline of Trapani, to discover the land and help my friend to DESIGN his activity.
CURIOUS ABOUT THIS OLIVE-OIL FAMILY TRADITION?
while cropping and training we shoot some scenes to share!
COMB THROUGH IDEAS: TRAINING IN TOURISM
His ideas were mostly spinning around the hospitality business, but with tons of possible side activities, like yoga classes, cooking, workshops, networking events, travel tours, and local products market... a storm of initiatives in need of adjustment.
I decided that the best METHODOLOGY to DESIGN WITH HIM the project was to schedule flexible meetings, alternating our face-to-face sessions with a set of individual work times I asked him to plan in his routine. I was tailoring and developing exercises for him while proceeding with consultancies.
EXERCISES aimed to challenge his creativity while educating him in the domain of touristic services. I also wanted him to spontaneously see what was ready in his hands to produce real-effect services in the given TIMEFRAME, so before summer. We need to evaluate each side of his project in terms of competencies, qualifications, and/or license, and feasibility.
.Let's say "we were combing the knots" of the project
(and, as you can see in pics, also the olives from the trees of his family's field! And that was delightful!)
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Was everything but easy and, of course we passed through little arguments but he was patient enough to scale step-by-step the lessons:
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- Brainstorming
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- Kick-off meeting with questioning VISION/MISSION
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- Redefine Ideas with the Archetypal Branding tests
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- SWAT analysis part 1
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- Design the process: what's your core business? Roleplay
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- Re-defining process: side activities_ Roleplay
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- SWAT part 2 -for side activities-
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- Quotation exercises
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- Creating Visual Palette and images/logo layout
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- Creating pamphlet images stickers/brochures
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- Redefine pamphlet images +flyer
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- Copywriting revision for hospitality platforms
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REFINE THE RESULTS: THE CONTENT AND THE BETA BOX CREATION
So while eating delicious local food, combing olives, and lively discussing we arrived at some good points!
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A good part of the training focused on the SERVICES QUOTATIONS, with some ROLEPLAY exercises, and others on the TRAVEL EXPERIENCE and workshop design. Some were chosen as immediately feasible, and others were postponed or archived.
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I concentrate a lot on guiding the CONTENT CREATION addressed to the TRAVEL PLATFORM where he intended to promote the b&b.
Then I could navigate the idea of promoting the territory and the b&b itself through a special GIFT OFFER: food boxes containing Sicilian gourmets.
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We designed these Journey Boxes selecting from a generous variety of specialties of territory, starting of course, from the olive oil of the family.
More BRAINSTORMING and RESEARCH were needed but finally, a beta product was ready to be shipped for Christmas!
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For this beta-box, I provided to create stickers, brochures, and flyers.
HAVE A LOOK AT THE PROCESS I GET INTO TO CREATE THE VISUAL ELEMENTS FOR FLYERS AND STICKERS OF THE PROJECT LIMONEROSSO.
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CLICK FOR THE FULL-SCREEN OPTION OR SIMPLY OPEN THE SLIDE VIDEO, IT ONLY TAKES A MINUTE!
LimoneRosso is now blooming in all his intent, thanks to these 2 months of collaboration all ideas turn into a project with guidelines. Piero is consistently building a network of local services and product providers for his brand, he is becoming an established dedicated yoga teacher in his community and the old family house is now a renovated b&b providing bookings and experiences during summer. I'm Looking forward to back!
THANKS TO THIS PROJECT, I'VE LEARNED to embrace small gestures of kindness and to slow down the process if the contest requires a much deep empathy and flexibility ...of course, I've learned that no, there's no way to refuse a sweet cassatina siciliana if it's offered to you with a smile, as joys of life must be honored and fully appreciated! Noted!
Thanks to LimoneRosso
