They say business owners never really switch off, something I experienced on a recent skiing trip to Tignes over Christmas. For once however it wasn’t a bad thing! As you may have guessed it involved design, more specifically the branding of Tignes itself.
That 80’s vibe…
Prior to stepping foot off the plane I was already a fan of the Tignes brand. Its elegant white peak (a silhouette of the Grande Motte glacier) against a blue sky background and a rather familiar bold red typeface is just my style of design. It has been subtly updated twice since its release in 1978. Once in 2009 when the typeface was modernised and again in 2020 when the inner stroke line was removed.
Familiar but different…
I mentioned a familiar typeface as a series of my own designs use a modified version of a similar font to evoke that retro feel. These include the Chelmsford Graphics Club logo, seasonal stacked DSDs and Essex County emblem.
A bit of Tignes history…
The original village of Tignes was located in the Isère valley below Val d’Isère. Following the second world war and after much protest from locals, the hydro-electric Tignes Dam was constructed. Whilst this was a great achievement for French engineering and the greater good of France, it meant that the old village of Tignes was drowned! The Dam was completed and the village submerged in 1952. Following the loss of the old village it was decided to develop a ski resort at the higher lake, Le Lac. This was surrounded by a bowl that would be ideal for skiing and was headed by the Grand Motte glacier. The majority of the resort was developed in the 1960s, with the logo following in 1978.
Application…
The task of applying a consistent logo and brand to five villages would be daunting to any design agency. When you factor in two rebrands in the past decade you can excuse a few examples of mixed styles. This is the case with a couple of items I’ve include below, but can be forgiven as they still look great!
The only example of the original logo I found was an old gondola positioned near the edge of the Le Lac. I personally love this version with its tightly packed characters and inner stroke line running to the very edge. There were a few existing versions of the 2009 design, most predominately on the current gondolas and signage here and there.
Left to right: 1978 branding on a disused gondola, 2009 branding on a current gondola and resort signage.
The aim of the most recent rebrand in 2020 was to allow the logo and brand to work across a wider variety of media. This can be seen in full colour banners, monotone signage and applications where background colours bleed through.
Left to right: 2020 branding in full colour, monotone and with a transparent background.
The flexibility of the artwork doesn’t end there. Window decals in a single colour vinyl with negative cut sections. Street signs utilising the glacier shape as a stand-alone element. And lastly the ultimate stripped back version with a single stroke-line. Someone has really thought about the breadth of application with the new logo and executed it brilliantly.
Left to right: Negative cut window vinyls, street signage with utilising the glacier shape and a stripped back linear variant.
And finally digital application, arguably the most important execution of the brand in a world of websites, social media and apps. It really shows its versatility here, utilising a full logo on the website, stand alone word mark on social media and a striped back emblem for the dedicated resort app. Each being instantly recognisable.
Left to right: Tignes website, Instagram account profile image and dedicated resort app icon.
Conclusion…
For me the Tignes branding is an inspiration. Simple, instantly recognisable and hugely flexible in its application. It’s a the perfect example of how create a modern identity. I can see it being much longer than a decade before any updates are necessary this time around.
Let us know in the comments what you think of the Tignes branding. Are you a fan of it? Have you visited Tignes and experienced it first-hand?
