Project file
Bonanza Casino
Reno, NV
2025-ongoing
The story
Embedded creative direction and in-house production, full time — brand standards, campaign creative, photography, promotion collateral, web content, and motion, all built by one person instead of handed off between five vendors. Refreshed the existing brand elements instead of replacing them, sharpened the typography and hierarchy, and built templates so recurring work — menus, table tents, seasonal promos — never started from a blank page again.
A more unified visual system for a local casino brand — one that shows up the same way whether it's a billboard on the highway or a table tent in the restaurant. Templates and standards mean recurring work doesn't start over every time, and the marketing team moves faster because the brand decisions are already made.
Deliverables
Creative Direction
The direction was never about a single loud campaign — it was about giving one Reno institution a single voice. Bonanza had decades of hometown recognition, but its visual touchpoints had drifted apart: one look on the billboards, another on the menus, another on the digital signage. The job was to refresh the existing brand elements rather than replace them — sharpen the typography, clarify the hierarchy, and make sure the same mark reads the same on a highway billboard and a dinner table tent.
PRODUCTION NOTE
Systems & Templates
Rather than hand production off between five vendors, creative direction and in-house production live under one roof — brand standards, campaign creative, photography, promotion collateral, web content, and motion, all built from the same file system. Templates for recurring work — menus, table tents, seasonal promotions — mean nothing starts from a blank page twice.
Motion & Signage
The system had to carry motion, too: marquee graphics and animated digital signage that hold the same visual language as the print materials. Building both from one shared toolkit keeps the casino's presence consistent whether someone catches it from the highway at dusk or reads it off a table tent inside Cactus Creek.
Field Notes
The lesson from Bonanza carries into every embedded-creative-direction relationship since: real brand consistency isn't a mood board, it's a template system someone on the marketing team actually opens every week. Every piece of design — from the marquee to the table tent — feels distinctly Bonanza because the workflow makes it easy to keep it that way, campaign after campaign.
FROM THE CAMPAIGN ARCHIVE
