PROJECT:
Special Event Branding & Design
CHICAGO CULTURAL ALLIANCE
Partner: Chicago Cultural Alliance
Services:
- Brand Strategy & Logo Design
- Web Design
- Digital Asset Design
- Graphic Design
"How might we create a broad and appealing Event identity but ensure it is still aligned with our primary brand?"
The Chicago Cultural Alliance is a beloved and trusted brand across Chicago for supporting, connecting, and promoting cultural heritage centers and museums across the city. For years, they sought to attract cultural consumers and build awareness to core members of the alliance. In recent years, the CCA has looked to expand its audiences by creating special events such as the World Dumpling Festival. The challenge was to ensure that these special events develop their own unique identity to attract broader audiences while ensuring that it is aligned with its primary brand.
Solution
My solution was to design a more unique logo that expresses the spirit of the World Dumpling Festival, provide guidelines for sub branding, and create design consistency. In 2024, Polyrhythmic was brought in to develop the brand strategy and production of all promotional and marketing materials including event website, social graphic and media production, event signage, and more.
Design
The World Dumpling Festival logo departs from the main CCA logo which is very modern, minimal, and angular to introduce a more organic, earthy, and playfully delightful logo resembling the character of various dumplings themselves. Consistency and visibility of the CCA logo focused more on rules of placement.
We introduced a new design language to include organic layering and guidelines for CCA logo placement. We used this to introduce variations of theme elements to create assets for marketing that were consistent but still felt fresh and exciting to broad cultural consumers.
The dumpling “characters” were introduced to indicate the experience to be fun and family oriented.
Production design on social media focused on following a narrative arc leading up to the event. First designing content that focused on the history of dumplings, then a focus on participating cultural organizations and performers, and finally, content about what to expect at the festival.
Case Studies
POLYRHYTHMIC SERVICES
POLYRHYTHMIC SERVICES
CONVERGENCE DESIGN LAB
CONVERGENCE DESIGN LAB
