Sundance Film Festival

Project Brief

The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It takes place each January in Park City, Utah, Salt Lake City, and at the Sundance Resort, and is the largest independent film festival in the United States. It includes competitive categories, includes documentary and dramatic films, both feature length and short films, in which awards are given, as well as out-of-competition categories for showcasing new films. (via Wikipedia)

Typography is making language visible which is the collision of meaning (content) and image (form). Approaching typography systematically is essential for designers. This allows for a common visual language to speak in a variety of media and formats. You will design a series of artifacts for the 2020 Sundance Film Festival ranging in size and purpose. This will require the designer to develop a cohesive system for scaling at different sizes and orientations.

Artifacts/Deliverables
Identity: a typographic logo for Sundance Film Festival 2020 will be designed and used as a way to inform typography and styling for all of the artifacts in this project.

Poster: this will be a general poster for the festival measuring 24x36”. Developing the poster will provide the direction for the other artifacts so a good portion of the schedule will be devoted to designing the poster.

Program: the 8x11.3” publication will be a program guide for festival attendees highlighting films, speakers, and a schedule for the festival. You will design the cover and an inside spread for the program.

Ticket: this will be a 6x2.75” ticket for entry into one of the films in the poster and/or program guide. It can be one or two-sided. 

Festival Badge: the roughly 5.6x7.7” badge will provide access to a certain attendee

Learning Objectives

— Develop a systematic approach to typography and layout
— Understand how hierarchy translates across media
— Develop a visually-rich and creative approach to using type and image
— Implement a grid system that is flexible for different sizes
— Set up and send files to print

Deliverables

— High quality prints of the above artifacts
— Upload a PDF of all of the artifacts as hi-res jpg’s in one folder
— 5+ images/photos of final work posted on Behance page with brief explanation of your design process

Readings/Resources

Sundance website Sundance Flickr Structural Typography by Bethany Heck  

Reflections

Students really excelled at developing a dynamic poster and overall identity. Most struggled with how to apply that to the program booklet. Most inside spreads of the booklets felt like they needed more attention, more love.