San Diego Design Week

Brand identity & campaign system

2025

Role: Brand & graphics designer — Design Forward Alliance (SDDW 2025)
Tools: Illustrator, InDesign, Figma, After Effects
Tags: branding · digital · design

Overview

Led brand and campaign execution for Design Forward Alliance’s annual San Diego Design Week 2025—translating program positioning into implementation-ready identity, print, motion, and social deliverables. Logo rollout, brand governance, and advertising touchpoints were coordinated with Bryan Rill (logo implementation and system handoff) and the DFA board (general brand and promotional needs).

Pipeline: Adobe Illustrator and InDesign for vector systems, large-format prep, and print-ready packages; Figma for layout exploration, component structure, and review; After Effects for animated logotypes and campaign motion exports.

8+ logo and style-guide artifacts—lockups, color/type rules, usage notes, and packaged exports for stakeholders
10+ poster compositions and mock sets for print and digital proofing across event and promo surfaces
6+ motion outputs—animated marks and supporting campaign assets for screens and social
8+ social templates and finalized post graphics aligned to the refreshed system

Objectives

Refresh the identity without losing existing recognition
Make the system **easy to deploy** across print, web, and social
Create a campaign language that scales from micro posts to large-format signage

Define clear rules so stakeholders can self-serve assets confidently
Build a repeatable template set for rapid weekly programming changes
Support motion and screen use with animated mark variants

System building

The project was treated like a production system: establish a tight core (typography, color, lockups), then design components that can be recombined for many event surfaces.

Key decisions focused on hierarchy at distance (street posters, banners), readability in-feed (social crops), and handoff clarity (export naming + usage notes).

Lockups designed for horizontal, stacked, and badge-style placements
Color and type rules tuned for both dark and light backgrounds
Template logic built for quick swaps: dates, venue, QR, and speaker/program highlights

A good event identity isn’t a single poster—it’s a kit that survives constant change.
— Process note

Rollout & governance

Deliverables were packaged so the board and partners could ship consistently—export sets, usage notes, and a style guide that prioritizes what people actually need when they’re making last-minute updates.

Export packs for print vendors and digital stakeholders
Social sizing variants and crop-safe layouts
Motion-ready logo assets and AE exports for screens/social

Process & artifacts

Roughly top-to-bottom: system and lockups, print and campaign art, programs and environmental scale, then in-person touchpoints, digital, partners, and awards.