Originally Posted by derek lapp

aesthetically, it's pleasing, don't get me wrong there, but imo the brand is off. a little brief context may be necessary, but in a nutshell, when i think florida, i think oranges, orlando magic, florida panthers, tampa bay lightening, retirement, disney world (or land, whichever one is over there)... i understand i'm not from florida, have never been there so there will be culltural aspects i don't recognize/understand, but i bring that up because if someone on the outside thinks it's missing its 'floridaness', how will the people on the inside react?

when i think florida, i automatically go to the tropicana colour palette - which may be bad, but i think you've been type cast with orange and green (go gators?). if it didn't say florida.com on the design, culturally, i would never guess florida. i would shoot for all the carribean and any other tropical destination before florida - i think because of the lack of orange.

you may want to play up the celebrity of florida a bit, no? especially if the goal is to encourage toursm? you've got a large amount of high profile activity - like i said, numerous sports teams, disney world, etc. i just got back from a vacation, and one of my friends had a 12 hour layover in miami on the way home. i said, "man, that sucks". he replied "no it doesn't, it's 12 hours in miami! imagine what i could do". i think it would help very much if you summed up florida as a huge mecca that everyone travels to instead of a deserted island with 1 tree where people go to die unless a genie rescues them.

i'm a designer too, so i completely understand it if your aim was to specifically break out of that green/orange florida gators stereotype palette, but my initial reaction was it's pretty, but doesn't say "florida" to me, and after typing all that out, i still stand by it, even though i'd probably be doing the same thing in your shoes.