Expanding what a trusted brand could mean to a new generation.
Creative Direction · Art Direction · Brand Strategy · Identity · UX · Digital Experience
AAA had generations of recognition and trust. The opportunity was to make more of its value relevant to a younger, digitally connected audience.
As Creative Director at Pace Communications, I helped connect audience insights, the GO BOLD idea, visual direction, and digital experience. The work explored how AAA’s content and services could come together around the things members wanted to do next.
01 / THE CHALLENGE
Start with trust. Open up possibilities.
AAA Living and VIA offered travel and lifestyle content across print and digital. Alongside AAA’s services, they gave the brand a broader role in people’s lives than roadside assistance alone.
The challenge was to make those connections clearer. We looked at how content, discovery, and membership could support one another while preserving the familiarity people valued.
The GO BOLD concepts shown here were purchased by AAA and handed off. This case study documents the work through that handoff.
Existing editorial ecosystem — AAA Living print and VIA digital.
02 / UNDERSTANDING THE EXPERIENCE
Make it easier to find what matters.
Existing audience research helped us frame the experience around a younger, digitally fluent traveler moving between content, inspiration, and practical information.
I helped translate that understanding into a connected experience. Early sketches and wireframes explored how someone could discover a story, find something useful, and reach relevant membership services.
That gave the team a structure to develop across desktop and mobile.
Early sketches and wireframes — connecting content, membership, discovery and utility.
Responsive experience architecture across mobile and desktop.
03 / THE CREATIVE IDEA
Give people the confidence to explore something new.
AAA already helped people get where they were going. GO BOLD explored how the brand could also inspire where they might go next.
Working with the team, I helped connect that idea to a visual direction and a broader content experience. Travel imagery and the open photographic frame made discovery central to the creative, with AAA providing a familiar point of reassurance.
Early GO BOLD ecosystem — connecting the idea across digital, print, mobile, content and emerging channels.
GO BOLD visual exploration — turning travel and discovery into an invitation to experience more.
04 / THE VISUAL SYSTEM
Give a bold idea a familiar signature.
The AAA Living identity, typography, and color palette provided a shared foundation for the work.
I helped connect those elements to the wider creative direction, bringing the editorial character of AAA Living into digital layouts and campaign applications.
The system gave different formats a common visual language while leaving room for their content and purpose.
05 / THE DIGITAL EXPERIENCE
Make useful content and services easier to find.
I helped shape the relationship between editorial content, discovery, and membership through page structures, navigation, and visual hierarchy.
The layouts show how travel stories, practical guidance, podcasts, and membership information could work together. Each offered a different starting point while keeping useful next steps within reach.
From page structure to the full content experience.
View of existing AAA landing page with early GO BOLD mockups.
Page concept bringing together the magazine, app interface, and podcast segments.
06 / THE MOBILE EXPERIENCE
Keep the priorities clear on a smaller screen.
On mobile, we reconsidered navigation, content hierarchy, and access to services around the space available.
The layouts carried the same brand direction into a more compact experience, bringing stories, features, and everyday tools together with persistent navigation.
My focus was keeping the experience connected as its format changed.
07 / CONTENT AND PARTICIPATION
An invitation with room for many stories.
The GO BOLD direction extended into print, member storytelling, video, and listening experiences.
Bold Predictions was designed to invite members to share what they hoped to make happen. GO BOLD W/ framed those ambitions as a video series, while branded playlists connected the idea to travel and everyday activities.
Together, these applications show how one creative direction could support different reasons to engage with AAA.
Bold Predictions: A participatory social concept inviting members to share what they hoped to make happen—from financial freedom to unforgettable experiences.
GO BOLD W/. A video series concept celebrating the different ways AAA members pursue experiences, ambitions and everyday adventures.
AAA + SPOTIFY. Branded playlist concepts extending the idea into road trips, travel, mindfulness, and entertainment.
08 / SHARED EMAIL STANDARDS
Different messages. A shared foundation.
AAA’s email communications had developed across teams and business groups, creating inconsistent layouts and visual approaches.
I developed a fresh design approach and built the accompanying brand guidelines, documenting changes to typography, color, imagery, buttons, and layout.
The guidelines made the work straightforward to hand off, giving the next designer or AAA’s internal team a clear foundation to maintain and extend.
09 / EMAIL PROGRAM RESULTS
A clearer picture of engagement.
The email program reported growth in engaged members, click rate, site visits, and site actions.
The shared design standards contributed to this broader effort, giving teams a more consistent foundation for member communications.
10 / CLOSING
A familiar brand. A wider horizon.
Across AAA Living and the wider email work, I helped connect creative direction to the practical details of how people encountered the brand.
My contribution brought brand thinking, art direction, and digital experience together—preserving AAA’s familiarity while exploring more ways for it to be useful.
Creative Director — Nathan Spoor
Copywriter — Zach Godwin
Agency — Pace Communications
NATHAN SPOOR
CREATIVE DIRECTOR
