Promotional campaign designed to raise awareness and excitement about the upcoming Seattle Children’s Festival. Created by Wilfred Aldrich.
Roles
Research. Illustration. Type Design. Photo Comping. Advertising strategy. Merchandising. Copywriting.
Goals
Create a colorful and playful modular design system that could be used to promote Seattle Children’s Festival.
Process
Research
What it is, and who attends?
Photo by Christopher Nelson
Seattle Children’s Festival presented by Northwest Folklife is committed to providing access for all, removing financial barriers to create the most inclusive, wide-reaching experiences for people of all ages and cultural backgrounds.
Suggested age demographics for children – 4 and up.
Visual Inspiration
Toys from the past
From Looking at the Seattle Children’s Festival’s various social media followers, The age range of parents attending was between 30-45 years old. I wanted to create a visually nostalgic look and feel that the parents could identify, and the children could enjoy. Inspired by the simple shapes and color pallets of the children’s toys of the 70s and 80s.
Custom Type/Illustration
Make it crafty!
My core concept was to create a colorful and playful series of characters as well as creating a custom typeface that resembled building blocks. I call the typefaces Kiddo and Tween, named after the festivals age range. Bringing the type into the 3rd dimension I was Inspired by cut construction paper and the experience of making childhood craft projects. Using a combination of Illustrator and Photoshop I created a paper-craft appearance to the design system.
Advertising
Getting the message out there!
Touch points for advertising:
Street level
Guerilla marketing
Transit
Social media
Swag Merch
Stuff we all get.
Merch items:
Cool Shirt
Re-usable drink container
Tote bag!
Final thought
Lessons learned
My original design system had a similar illustration style and color pallet. But it was too static and didn’t feel playful enough. Based on feedback from other designers I tried to make the elements interact with one another and to break out of their containers. In the end I had to break my own rules. In the end its important to know the rules but having more fun and break the rules is more relatable especially to children. After all we’re just along for the ride.