SUMMERFEST 2024
Seasonal Graphic Design Assistant Role
With my last position as an assistant graphic designer at Summerfest, a Music Festival Based in Milwaukee WI, I gained experience with Cross-Functional collaboration with the marketing, social media, and photography teams, as well as my immediate graphic design team to develop strategic content plans that came to fruition in a wide variety of assets. I oversaw the development of print and digital trade ads that primarily consisted of taking artist-approved assets and altering them with the Adobe Creative Cloud to include festival-specific information while aligning with both Summerfest and Sponsor brand standards. Among production artist work and more creative projects such as Festival schedule graphics, I also spearheaded the creation of the visual identity for a new “Kids Fit Challenge” that presented itself in a variety of deliverables such as signage booklets and ads. While managing multiple projects simultaneously I was also assigned to ideate new creative directions for upcoming years and improve and problem-solve existing visual branding.
Playlist Cover Graphics
One of the first projects I was able to have complete creative control was the Playlist Cover Graphics used for curated Spotify playlists based on the festival lineup. My main instruction was to create compositions that tied in both the current festival brand standards, encompassed the energy of each playlist, and incorporated the smile logo in some capacity. I chose to illustrate various instruments that would most likely be used by the corresponding genre. I then applied the already-established colors and also incorporated some of the skyline silhouette and firework graphics from the lineup poster into the background.
Schedule Graphics
With a large multitude of live shows at various stages at a single event, a clear and comprehensive display of daily performance was needed for ease of attendees. These ended up being displayed on grounds printed on large scale signage as well as being published digitally on both the website and socials. While aligning with industry solutions and festival branding I collaborated with my lead graphic designer to establish the layout. My contribution of this project was the production insertion of the artist name and times as established by the artist management and production teams. This required extreme attention to detail and a close eye to typography principles to achieve accurate representation of artist names while aligning with the established composition.
Trade Advertisements
One of my main reoccurring responsibilities of this position was the creation of weekly requested trade ads that would be distributed by a multitude of print and digital publications. While partnering with these organizations and the marketing and PR teams at Summerfest we developed targeted content using festival campaign branding as well as artist approved graphics in a multitude of formats. This often required the integration of Summerfest event specific info and sponsor logos into prior existing artist content to align with the print standards of the publisher. With quick turn around times these projects required high attention to detail as they captured the attention of mass audiences.
Sticker Pack
The objective of this project was to ideate potential designs for decorative stickers that would come to fruition in a pack that would then be sold at a merch store as well as being included in 'swag bags' that would be gifted to performing artists. With loose direction and complete creative freedom, I founded my designs in industry trends and brand alignment with the inclusion of current campaign colors. This project allowed me to also think about the application of various materials, textures, and shapes while in the print decision phase of the project.
Aurora Kids Fit Challenge
The Kids Fit Challenge was an health and wellness-focused for event sponsored by Aurora Healthcare and hosted at Northwestern Mutual Park on the Summerfest grounds. While spearheading this project, it required direct collaboration with the Aurora Events and marketing teams while developing the visual identity that would be applied to a small booklet, event signage, and advertisements. While using prior established colors I handpicked fonts and created compositions and illustrations that would target a young playful audience while also aligning with brand standards and the booklet content. This ended up presenting itself in a loose sticker-like application of wellness oriented icons with playful shapes and patterns to brighten up the composition.
Friend of Entertainment Laminate Pass
This project ended up being the most exciting to see come to fruition. Initially I was assigned to create a design for a laminate pass that would be used for admittance for a happy hour event hosted by Summerfest for the artists and their management teams. The only direction was to keep it "fun and funky". Without given copy or any other instructions I created a few designs loosely based on the festival poster and also paired it with some other patterns that incorporated the Summerfest 'smile' logo as well as brand color schemes. After turning in the proposed designs I had originally thought the project had been dropped or put on hold. A few weeks later I was happy to find that one of my designs had been used as a pass for North West's Birthday Party hosted at the SZA concert hosted at the Amphitheater. Unknowingly my designs were seen worn by Kim Kardashian as well as the rest of the party attendees.
As my last and final project, I was assigned to quickly concept ideas for the next year's creative campaign and propose them to the creative team. We were instructed to focus on building that foundation with the lineup poster but with that, I also thought about how that could be translated into the wide variety of assets we also produce. I also wanted to find ways the individual festival campaign could better align with the overarching company's visual identity. With research on current industry trends I attempted to found my proposed drafts in those findings.