The Tourism Works program was launched in 2025 and consists of several initiatives all with the focus of growing the hospitality workforce in West Virginia. An interesting challenge of developing branding for this program is that it needed to be something that a variety of stakeholders could identify with, ranging from high school students to business owners.
Development
I had the opportunity to design visuals, templates and other materials for the program’s free hospitality and tourism course, developed in partnership with Blue Ridge Community and Technical College.
Microcredential Badges: Course completers earn 1 credit hour and become a Certified Destination Specialist, gaining knowledge in areas such as customer service, strategic planning and problem solving. As learners completed each of the 12 microcredentials, they earned a digital badge, which I designed.
Course Templates: Additionally, it was important that the online course modules visually matched the WV Tourism brand, though the slide-by-slide development needed to be done by members of the Blue Ridge team. To meet this need, I developed course templates using Canva that were on-brand, but accessible enough for non-designers to work with.
Promotional Materials
As learners reached milestones in the Tourism Works course, they had the opportunity to earn a variety of prizes. With both individuals and businesses working towards reaching different levels of course completion, the rewards were specialized to each group.
Prizes: Whether they are a rafting guide, entrepreneur, or just a lover of West Virginia, the course enrollees were diverse, so the prizes needed to appeal to them all. I created a t-shirt and button featuring a design that makes sense for any West Virginian to wear, while also empowering them to flex their newly learned customer service skills.
Business Designation: Businesses were eager to leverage these free trainings with their employees, so I created this window cling to recognize and reward them as their team reached course completion goals.
