Healdsburg, a tiny gem of a town snuggled into the heart of the Northern California wine country. Thanks to the wineries of the Dry Creek Valley, the town — loaded with history and charm — is practically guaranteed a steady flow of thirsty and well-heeled visitors.

Once there, you can’t walk into a shop or hotel without bumping into a stack of brochures offering maps of the wine country — but there’s a fundamental problem with this.

Those ubiquitous maps all direct tourists out of town.

This prompted Jennifer Burke of the online Healdsburg Magazine to approach me with an idea: an advertising-driven walking map of downtown Healdsburg, something hip and local and totally pick-up-able … something to keep those tourist dollars in town.

I loved the idea.

We got to work, trying to create a functional piece that also captured the historical charm of the place. Point of historical interest made the map as well as the coolest toy, bicycle, clothing and candy shops in town. On top of that, I designed it as a template that Jennifer would be able to update herself.

The results of our months-long collaborative project are now on the street, and “The Map” (as it’s been dubbed) is a smashing success.

Visitors love it, businesses love it, and those that didn’t make it into the layout are clamoring to be on the next one.

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Communicate the unique brand values, show off the product, and project the story of this small winery’s history in a slick, simple, good-looking piece — that was the brief. And that’s what we have here:

The gatefold cover features a melodramatic oceanside photo of the recently christened “Roshambus“. The photo splits open to reveal a solid sea of Roshambo Red on which their lovely wine labels and cheeky descriptions float. The stories of the winery’s patriarch and of it’s current owner make up each side of the gatefold.

Powerful colors, clean-yet-quirky design, and a copywriting voice that melds perfectly with the visuals has made this little brochure a hit with the media, salespeople and customers alike.