ACL All Access
Austin PBS holds a yearly raffle with the grand prize being VIP tickets to Austin City Limits Music Festival, as well as tickets to the ACL Hall of Fame and live tapings at the Moody Theater.
The Challenge
The existing graphic looked dated and lacked the "cool" factor that people expect from Austin City Limits branding. I was tasked with updating it and creating the social media promos.
Target Audience
Music lovers, Austin locals, concert-goers, young and hip, fun-loving people.
Moodboard
I wanted to use a bright color and strong contrast to make the graphics look playful, fresh and striking. I was drawn to neon/acid green, as it brought to mind aliens, environmentalism, and my childhood love of Nickelodeon slime. The right green looks both natural and supernatural, giving it depth.
Round 1
Rockin' out alien-style. To convey a concert, I created green hands in the air and combined that idea with the look of a rock album cover. For the two letter S's, I took inspiration from the S's in the Austin City Limits logo. However, I wasn't happy with the style of the hands with the lettering and moved on to other ideas.
Round 2
Funky fonts in high-contrast black and white. I decided to try using only black and white, with outlines and shapes making the impact. My manager and I both liked the unique, hand-done look of the second option.
Round 3
Letters as weird little guys. I customized the font Cheee to add variety to the letters and make them work together more sculpturally. When I realized they looked almost alive, I decided to turn them into little creatures and objects.
Final design
After feedback, I created a version with the full Austin City Limits logo rather than the abbreviated ACL logo. I used a trending design element, a thick border, to house all the secondary components.
Reflection
Working with such a famous piece of Austin culture was both exciting and intimidating. This graphic stands out on Instagram and lends itself well to motion graphics (which the intern following me, Kat McRaven Davis, did). I'm very happy with how it turned out and grateful for the opportunity to work with an iconic brand.
