Winner Story: Southwest Gas Corp

We are taking these two weeks to celebrate and appreciate our design winners.
Can you share a little more about this Award of Excellence-winning project?

This project was a sustainability-focused partnership involving three companies — Southwest Gas, U.S. Gain, and the Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) of Southern Nevada. Each company shared the common goal of expanding clean fuel transit options throughout Southern Nevada by providing RTC’s transit buses with cost-effective and environmentally sustainable fuel sources.

The clients were looking for a creative strategy to publicize their partnership to the Southern Nevada public. The team suggested using an RTC bus as a moving billboard to promote the initiative, maximize visibility, and connect with the local community who sees and rides these buses daily.

What was the creative process like?

To help achieve the ultimate eye-catching and engaging design, I partnered with Matt Carlson — a nationally-known, award-winning illustrator — whose passion and love for nature would be perfect for creating an illustration that told a complete and compelling story. With my creative direction, Matt created an illustration that depicted the lifecycle of a sustainable future.

After finalizing the design, I layered brand messaging, graphic elements, and all three company logos on top of Matt’s illustration. With that, the bus design was officially complete and ready for rollout.

Did you face any major challenges? How did you overcome them?

The biggest challenge was the timeframe. We started the project at the beginning of December, and the first bus was wrapped by mid-January. We pulled this off from conception to implementation in about 35 days, during a pandemic. We made it work by meeting regularly and staying on top of the deadlines. I also personally did all the graphic design work myself to avoid any delays.

How did this project contribute to RTC’s mission?

While reducing greenhouse gas emissions and keeping public transit cleaner, RTC expects to save $1.2million in operating costs because of our design paired with this strategic initiative. They currently have this design on three buses and plan to apply it to at least 5% of their fleet in the upcoming months.

What does winning a Communicator Award of Excellence mean to you?

Receiving the Award of Excellence filled me with happiness and admiration. I had never entered any of my work for a creative award before this one. But I felt incredibly proud to have been a part of this sustainable initiative by the regional RTC, US Gain, and Southwest Gas, and I wanted the world to experience what we did.

I’ll be submitting more work this year!

Barney Abramson

Creative Direction
Graphic Design
Southwest Gas Corp

Matt Carlson

Illustrator
Plaid Mnt.

Amy Washburn

Project Manager
Southwest Gas Corp

Sean Corbett

Strategy
Southwest Gas Corp

About the Awards

For our 29th season of the Communicator Awards, we have expanded our design categories to feature B2B and B2C projects and campaigns respectively.