Case Study: Event Brand

GOAL: The Jam & Sing Thing is a new event being formed which will bring together both newbie and experienced musicians for a weekend of fun and informal jamming and singing sessons, private lessons and dancing in January 2010. I was asked to create a brand for the event which reflected that, and also promoted the fact that this was happening in the dead of winter, when most folk festivals are hibernating.

STRATEGY: Initially, the event did not have a name and I brainstormed back and forth with the organizer with ideas I had after getting a clear understanding what the event would feel like. So many of the names that bounced around at first didnt' hold the essence of what it WAS, or weren't easy to remember. The name Jam & Sing Thing was floated out there when I realized that is what I was calling it subconsciously. She loved it - the rest of the organizing committee thought it was great - and it stuck. A brand is supposed to stick and be memorable, so we were on our way.

The first step in the process was to make a bunch of black and white thumbnail images. I came up with 3, then variations on two of those, but the idea of using the ampersand as a snow man was the best one I had initially.

When I fine tuned that, it just came to live - it felt like the snow fiddler wanted to leap out and start playing. And that is ultimately the feeling of the brand, and the event.

From there, I chose a color - a blue is always good for depicting snow and cold when you can't actually use white. The black/white and one color logos will work when printing in ways that might add more cost for ink.

I created a full color version next (below), which I morphed into a 3D color version in Photoshop (above). And that is the image everyone will see on the web, and hopefully promotion material some day! Hope to see you at The Thing :)

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