Team

Team of three designers, BGSU Academic & Advising Board of Arts & Sciences 

Materials

Print + digital, Adobe Suite

My Role

As a design team, we developed the brand identity together. We worked to show the celebration, curiosity and energy of the evening. I was in charge of deciding imagery and color treatment within the brand.

Once we had finalized the identity, we each took on a pillar of the operation. I developed the event poster which evolved into an 8-series poster that could be tiled for an environmental wallpaper. A cinema brochure and digital time sheet graphics were created to help visitors identify and locate all performances happening through both buildings, during both nights of the event. I was also a part in running the BGSUGD (Bowling Green State University Graphic Design) Silent Auction which helped raise money for the GD program through donations from alumni and donors. 

Research/ Insight

The project started with sprint meetings (based on the book Sprint: How to Solve Big Problems and Test Drive New Ideas in Just Five Days). The gist of a Sprint is to show quick, rough iterations to promote ideation instead of getting caught up in the details. The process helped to keep the ideas flowing, not kill them before they had a chance to live.

Initial research was based heavily on the feeling we wanted viewers to take away from the show. BGSU's Arts Xtravaganza (ArtsX) is an annual, one-night only event that celebrates the work and achievements of students, faculty, and alumni of Bowling Green State University. The community is welcomed to the campus to see shows, performances, galleries and any other creative outlet the students and faculty curated to share from the past year of creation. From our own experiences, as well as others we surveyed, visitors who left ArtsX events from previous years felt inspired from the art they saw and left with a better understanding and appreciation for the exceptionally talented creatives and their craft. 

The name, "Volanti: Seeking Unknown Heights" was in reference to the main act of the evening, an aerialist duo called Violet & Fortuna. We titled the event "Volanti" to be in cohesion with Violet & Fortuna's Latin names. We ran with the feeling of infinite creativity as our brand vision. Through this lense of “infinite creativity”, came the choice of the font, colors and imagery. We chose clouds to more obviously represent flying and used colors to express the whimsical side of the event. 

We also researched other successful marketing campaigns in regards to how we could best advertise the event to potential visitors inside and outside the campus community. Some campaigns we researched were the likes of Burberry, Coca Cola and Nike. We also looked into carnivals and the world of Circ De Soleil for inspiration. 

Goals/ Objectives

• Foster collaboration between the various arts-related programs at BGSU

• Create awareness for the arts in as broad a demographic as possible, both on campus and in the community at large

• Showcase the facilities in both the Wolfe Center and the Fine Arts Center, and their abilities to catalyze the creative process

• Enable the public to experience a wide variety of art-making activities

• Provide a venue for students to showcase and find audiences for their work

Development

The first step in the project was to let the community know about the event. Newsletters and postcards were mailed out to alumni, friends, family, donors, local design celebrities - anyone who had expressed interest in the campus’ art community. Each division within the art community shared their list of connections to send out the announcements. 

The design team pitched ideas for the brand identity to The Board each week. The weekly meeting kept us on pace for our deadline, as well as allowed for ample feedback-correction time in case anything had changed outside of our design team.

In addition to our communication with The Board, the design team was also in communication with each division in the art community to make sure each department was staying in relation to the brand. 

Setbacks

The first setback we faced as a team was during the board meetings when we would explain our decisions. Since we were working with The Board, filled with other creative minds more experienced than our own, we were pushed to our creative boundaries and further to create something extraordinary as we had other creatives who wouldn’t let us settle. 

Within the design team, we dealt with issues of “too many cooks in the kitchen” until we divvied up the tasks. We quickly learned each others’ strengths and divided the tasks to conquer; each focusing on our own mini projects, but still getting input from the others to keep us connected. 

Outcome

Cinema Brochure, Digital Timesheet Graphics, Invitations (postcard), Posters (singular and an 8-series poster), Signage + Wayfinding, Web, the Final Show

Next Steps/ Results 

Award Won // Silver ADDY, Student Section