Venue Branding Spring 2015

Objective

You are to re-brand a local concert venue through the creation of a logo and 3 posters for separate artists or bands that all appear to stem from the same visual vocabulary and thus give an idea of the overall look for the venue.

Note: Logos, posters (especially advertising) and collateral are only a small part of what makes up a brand, so this term is being used loosely.

Project Specs

• Logo (Presented b/w, 2×2 on letter-sized page)
• 3 Posters, 8×12
• 3 Collateral Items (details to be announced)

Instructions

1. Planning, Researching, Sketching

Decide on the venue you will be branding and research what types of bands are likely to (or could potentially) play there. In doing this, you should decide whether your re-branding should carve out a narrower or wider target audience. Based on what you know and find out through research, and how you want to position the venue, gather a collection of at least 10 images that give a feel for the direction you want to take the brand visually.

Present these images and at least 10 sketches for the logo the class after assignment. Both are needed to decide what makes sense for your venue. (Due 4-7: Images and logo sketches)

2. Comping Up Your Logos

Based on feedback, you will create illustrator comps of 3 of the logos from your sketches. You should aim to get these marks as tight as you can for presentation on the next class day, so that you can smoothly move forward after we decide on the one you’ll move forward with. (Due 4-12, beginning of class: Illustrator comps of 3 logo options)

3. Poster Sketches

Now that you have a logo chosen, we’ll move on to the next stage. You should nail down the three artists/bands that will appear at your venue, and create sketches for how the posters will address the specific bands will holding together as a branding tool for the venue. You should present at least one full set of sketches (3, one for each band). Present more if your first set isn’t strong enough. You also need to have stylistic inspiration imagery. I want to see this. It may come from the original imagery you gathered if it’s still relevant. (Due 4-30: Poster sketches)

4. Making it Happen

Once you’ve gotten approval and feedback on your approach, begin building your posters. You may build these in Photoshop or Illustrator, but if you build elements in Photoshop, they should be at least 300 dpi at full size. Continue working on these posters and getting feedback until the project due date.

5. Extra Element (To Be Announced)

You will create another element for the project, which will likely involve distillation of the imagery and style you’ve created into a more functional pieces. This will be introduced in a manner similar to a Rapid-Fire. Just be aware that there is another component of the project so you stay on target with milestones.

Here it is: Tickets

6. Show and Tell / Critique / Food (Optional)

You will present all elements of the project, printed, proper and pretty, to the class on the due date. Everything is due at the beginning of class on the due date, as this will be a critique day.

Submission

Turn in printed versions of all elements at the beginning of class, and drop working files and pdfs of the project (with the files named intuitively and extra files removed) in the class dropbox by the beginning of class in a folder labeled [lastname_f_project4].

• 3 Poster Prints
• 1 black and white print of logo, 2×2 on letter sized paper
• 3 Prints of mystery element (it will be small)

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Full Project Schedule

• April 21: Project Introduced, Begin Researching, Gathering & Sketching
• April 23: Sketches & Images reviewed, 3 directions chosen to create working comps from
• April 28: Presentation of logos, deciding on 1 logo, Begin poster sketching
• April 30: Review of poster sketches, begin building posters
• May 5: Work Day
• May 7: Work Day, Introduce Extra Element
• May 12: Critique of entire project

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Resources

http://www.gigposters.com/