A cold-weather encore
Winter Staycation
The same invitation to locals — now with frost on the windows, seasonal depression jokes, and a whole new palette of icy neon.
Overview
After the success of the inaugural Staycation weekend, Reimagine Portland and the Portland Bureau of Transportation extended the idea into Portland’s first Winter Staycation: a citywide push to bring energy downtown during the coldest months of the year.
The Winter Light Festival anchored the whole thing, with games, theatre, concerts, dining, and local retail filling in around it. That turned a single weekend into a multi-week run, which meant the creative had to hold attention a lot longer than the summer campaign did.
So I kept the mid-century postcard structure from the summer and swapped the warmth for something cooler and more electric, closer to the actual glow of the festival. Icy blues and magentas, hand-drawn snow and rain, and copy honest about what a Portland January is like.
ClientReimagine Portland × PBOT
RoleBrand, Campaign & Art Direction
ScopeSeasonal Identity, Print, Merch, Web
Year2025
The Brand
The winter lockup keeps the Staycation structure and swaps the warm postcard palette for icy sky blue and magenta, plus dark-navy variants for nighttime placements and digital ads.
On the Web
The winter campaign lived on the same pdxstaycay.com platform, reskinned with a darker, moodier palette and a festival-season events calendar that ran for weeks instead of a weekend.
Visit the live site
Collectibles
Thousands of postcards went out in the mail, hundreds of coasters went to participating bars and restaurants, and the locals pass turned up in coffee shops all over town. Small physical reminders that downtown was worth the trip, even when it was raining sideways.
Postcard
Coasters
Locals Pass
Social Engagement
Premade social tiles and influencer kits kept the winter voice consistent: patterned backgrounds, downtown photography, and captions that sound like a friend texting you, not a tourism board.
9:41PDX
portland_staycation Seasonal depression? More like seasonal expression.
Digital Advertising
Winter Staycation showed up in Willamette Week newsletters, sidebar units, and native placements, all sized to sit inside an editorial page instead of shouting over it.
Digital Advertising
Portland events, food, and winter things to do
Merch
A cozy sweater and a locals pass for the people who actually live here. The best staycation is the one where you never have to pack a bag.
Apparel
Locals Pass
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