Kennedy Center Brand Collateral
As a freelance senior visual designer at IA Collaborative, a Chicago-based agency, I worked along the head of graphic design create collateral for The Kennedy Center during its rebrand. This included sub-brand logos, a brand book, and applications of new logos toward print and digital materials.
01 Problem
After creating the new Kennedy Center logo, the design director at IA Collaborative tagged me in to create secondary logo layouts, print marketing collateral, and visual brand guidelines that cover other essential brand expressions.
02 Approach
The goal was to not only set design constraints for the end client, but also to inspire them push creative boundaries in visuals. We used three different types of performing arts events occurring around the time – a pianist, a ballet ensemble, and Hamilton – to cover a wide range of tones, occasions, and degrees of aesthetic flexibility in each case.
03 Solution
In collaboration with the design director, I designed helped lay out and populate the contents of a brand book, creating a variety of print and digital designs showcasing the logo in its many environments. I also created secondary logos, a video intro, and design guidelines.
Secondary logo lockups
Business cards & stationery
Print calendar
Print ad trio
Newspaper ad trios
In order to accommodate both flexible and inflexible ad layouts, I created four different versions of a triple news ad. The more angular versions require in-house designers at The Kennedy Center to spend more time customizing the artwork. But they mirror the angle of the new logo as an homage to the new identity, and a way to re-enforce the brand.
Digital display ads
Video title sequence options
Outcome
My director and I were able to very quickly power through every touchpoint in the brand book, creating all of the above and much, much more in a matter of a few months. And the work earned a warm reception from the client.