04: Making a Treasure Hunt Part 2 of 2

Illustration: Making a Treasure Hunt Part 2 @smartigraphicdesign

Last month, I shared about how I start my treasure hunt projects. I covered making a map, identifying hot spots, listing out themes, brainstorming challenges and testing clues and challenges for robustness. That's normally a joyful ride of creation. Now, I'll be sharing how I finish my treasure hunt projects by bringing everything under the same visual tent with graphic design skills, printing, assembling and setting it up for my lucky participants. This is when the project phase gets a little technical and sometimes tedious leading up to the final confetti throw. But hang in there, the ride at the end will be worth it. Here's what's left:

6) choose branding style, colors and illustrations

7) level up all of the challenges with branding (*this part takes the longest)

8) print

9) assemble

10) deliver and let them enjoy

+) if you are feeling encouraged, tweak and reset for others to play

6. CHOOSE BRANDING DETAILS

Branding is a special place where the character of a project becomes tangible. Certain style, colors, illustrations, logos, patterns, and motifs will fit with the hunt and the participants. I take the theme and look at natural colors from photographs of the route. Sometimes these design choices just pop up naturally. Sometimes it's a mix and match of fun combinations.

Buenos Aires was a quirky walk through several neighborhoods, so I used a pattern of pink, white and yellow colored dots to designate different spaces with clean bold type. Paris was a magic exploration for young children, so it was a monochromatic blue theme with gritty black and white pencil drawings. For the last treasure hunt that I made in Copenhagen, I combined an old Scandinavian typography with some playfully bright drawings of the Hans Christian Andersen stories.

Here are some questions I consider:

What kind of personality does the hunt have? determines color, voice

What things are identified with this particular hunt? determines motifs, typography

How is this hunt different from others? determines patterns, special logo

7. LEVEL UP CHALLENGES WITH BRANDING

Take all of the differently designed pieces and set them up together in the same design space. I like to make a giant master Adobe Illustrator file and drop all my assets there - logo, patterns, colors, motifs, typography choices. Then I make a separate Adobe Illustrator file with A3 pages with all the measured little clue pieces, envelopes, boxes and extras. Since I do double-sided printing, I make sure that the pages all have the same grid and match up pages in pairs so that they print seamlessly. Note to self: remember to give a little bleed extension to make sure the pattern or color doesn't get cut off.

Sometimes it is easiest to blanket everything under the same color and then start differentiating from there. If all the clues are used on the same day, then I make everything uniform. But if the treasure hunt has multiple days, I like to give every day a little different coloring so that the distinction is easy to see.

8. PRINT

In this process, some clues will need to be reset because the printing process will change them - either because the paper becomes thicker, or the quality no longer works. Because clue-making is a tangible process, you won't know until you print it out. So I normally go to the printers and print and test out the design in batches to make sure it still works.

It takes a couple of visits to the printers to get this part right. I always forget this and have a moment where I go to the printers and think I've finally figured it out and become a genius level designer! But then my eye will scan and see small design mistakes and I'll have to go back to print. With flexible printers I know, I will just stay nearby and go back and forth printing different stages. If not, I'll do it in batches over a week until I have everything. I always have to remind myself to celebrate the small wins as I go along. Ah, silly me.

Photo 1: Scissors and tape in the assembly of the Copenhagen Treasure Hunt 2022 clues.

9. ASSEMBLE

Cut, fold, bind, paste, set, slide. Get crafty. This is the adult version of the 4th grade. Use your cutting mat. Bring out your tools. Wear safety googles. Make all the things come to life.

If I'm honest, all the stages of leveling up, printing, assembling happen in overlap. There are some pieces that will come together sooner. Anyway, take joy in the crafting stage of the assembly. It really is joyous to bring something from scribbled idea into real life. Get in it!

Photo 2: Layout of the clues in day color coordination for Copenhagen Treasure Hunt 2022 © thesmarti

10. DELIVER AND LET PARTICIPANTS ENJOY

Once assembled, set them up for display. There are a variety of ways to do this - wreaths, cubby holes, display boxes, baskets, hanging photos. In some cases, displaying won't be necessary because the hunt might be a hidden process. But I'm a visual person and I normally make these for younger people, so leaving the visual interest in the open hypes up the experience. It also makes it more visually accessible and pleasurable for everyone. Note to self, remember to take a lot of photographs to congratulate yourself on the creation phase, because as people play, the clues will get broken into and naturally wear out.

I like to make a one-page introduction and directions to start the treasure hunt. This is helpful for the participants so that they can get a first briefing to quell the initial questions that percolate. Then it serves as a refreshing re-read at anytime to re-orient the participant. It's a very useful tool because the start of a treasure hunt is often nebulous. It only takes shape and make sense as participants start to solve challenges. Frankly, an introduction/direction letter also serves double purpose as it takes the pressure off of the maker to be omniscient or present during the hunt. Then (if you want to) the hunt can stand independently.

Which brings me to my next point - with adults, I do not participate alongside. But with little ones, I often join for the ride. And it is the greatest challenge to decide when to help and when to let them figure it out. My niece and nephew know this and they milk me for hints or suggestions. What can I say? I love these kiddos. As they grow up, I'm learning to just provide encouragement.

In every hunt, I'm surprised by how the challenges/clues play out. Things that "tested" as easy, can sometimes stump other people. And then sometimes the other way around - things that took me forever to create and figure out, are solved in seconds! It's never the same hunt, no matter who plays. I chalk it all up to different range of intelligences and capacities. It's always a joy to see it unfold.

Photo 3: Display case for the some of the Copenhagen Treasure Hunt 2022 clues and tokens © thesmarti

+) TWEAK

This next stage is just a suggestion, because it's not for everyone. But if you are feeling encouraged, tweak the clues, reset and let new participants play. The treasure hunts that I make are typically very personal, so I don't re-use them. But there's a possibility there to make them more generic for the masses. Depends on what your purpose is.

One thing is for sure - crafting a treasure hunt is a head game. You have to be crazy enough to build something unknown, dreaming it up in your head, breaking down the little defaults that'll trip up the journey, taking the time to do all the little things to smooth it all out and make it work. Even with all the testing, some little part will fail.

Maybe a more genius person could build it better and faster, but I think I do alright as a creative. Half the time I have to convince myself to make it smaller, easier and with fewer parts. But it's nice to honor my inner child, and build up the challenging puzzles and games that I want to share with others. My hope is that I'm gifting a worthwhile adventure!

Happy treasure-hunt-making,

smarti