Advertising, branding, & motion design
DC Downbeat is an advertising design project spanning both the physical and digital spheres. Imagined in collaboration with Destination DC and DC Metro, the organization brings an annual jazz crawl to the local community, connecting audiences with music and venues throughout the city. From its visual identity to its campaign materials, the project explores how design can build excitement around an event while creating an identity that can evolve year after year.
To develop that identity, I began by exploring logos inspired by abstract and art deco styles, referencing antique jazz posters for inspiration.
Original logo concepts played with blocky, abstract shapes, and different ways of mimicking movement and rhythm through type - jagged or mismatched letters, and overlapping shapes. The bottom right logo was the concept I expanded on further, since it best replicated the funky, retro jazz style I was looking for, while maintaining good readability.
This is the finalized logo concept for Dc Downbeat, modified from the original idea to add more "spunk." The overlapping is meant to be reminiscent of coinciding harmonies, and the color palette has been defined to emulate a "night time warmth" - a nod to the glow of streetlights and dim bar settings.
The next step in shaping the visual language of DC Downbeat was exploring instruments in abstract forms in the campaign's poster. I tried iterations of different instruments, including the trumpet, bass, and piano. The piano, mimicking a path, best achieved the message and feeling I was looking for DC Downbeat to emulate.
bringing the campaign to life
I explored the visual language of Follow the Sound through motion, considering how each element could move while still feeling true to the campaign’s spunky, jazzy, buzzing-with-life personality. Timing became especially important in this short-form format - every second needed to capture attention, communicate the energy of the event, and give the audience a reason to keep watching.
I imagined this animation appearing as a quick interruption in someone’s feed or before a video, where it would need to make an immediate impression. Short-form content also comes with an element of automatic repetition, so I designed the animation to loop seamlessly. Allowing the ending to flow naturally back into the beginning creates a smooth, satisfying rhythm that invites the viewer to watch again - hopefully long enough to make them curious about the event itself.
how does DC Downbeat's visual strategy translate year to year?
To expand on this project, I wanted to consider how DC Downbeat's Follow The Sound event and its visual language would translate to future campaigns for the same event. I envisioned different instruments, so that each year could have a unique, yet cohesive identity. Here, I explored the bass and saxophone, which each have strong shape language and association with the genre of jazz.
With these future event concepts, I changed the color hierarchy, while keeping it within the same palette. However, I decided if they were changed to have the dominant blue and white like the original poster, they would hold more recognizability to the audience.
With the annual campaigns adhering to the same color hierarchies, they would be easily recognized year after year as the same event, shaping a strong, cohesive entire identity. This also opens a door for DC Downbeat to maintain the same style as the Follow The Sound campaign for other events, easily differentiated through the dominant colors.
Credits
Design - Fiona Dale
Animation - Fiona Dale
