VULTURE FESTIVAL

Off the Screen and IRL

In 2014, Vulture.com, New York Magazine’s pop culture and entertainment vertical, launched the a weekend-long live event to bring the editorial content of the site—covering television, film, music, books theater, and more—to life. My team and I were tasked with developing a brand extension that expressed the multi-faceted experience of this new festival, rooted in the visual language of the Vulture brand, but with a unique expression for the event.

PROCESS

Working with Art Director Reid Uhrich, we began by doing a deep dive into the visual language of Vulture, searching for clues to what an event might look like. One of the hallmarks of the Vulture brand identity was a set of different containers for its tagline, “Devouring Culture.” We found many precedents for this kind of dynamic brand identity in the pop culture and entertainment space: MTV’s ever-changing logo, the Brooklyn Museum’s system of morphing logos, and “Google Doogles,” which we used as a rationale to develop a system of containers for the word “Festival,” when it was locked up with the Vulture wordmark. These containers ranged from abstract and expressive—such as bursts or word bubbles—to media-related, such as televisions or filmstrips.

With a nod to carnival midways, pulpy comic books, and sho-card printing, the festival’s key art was rooted in graphic sunbursts and heavy dot patterns. It was related to Vulture.com’s visual language, but differentiated through color and texture.

EXECUTION

The branding was applied across print and digital advertising, social media, microsite, and onsite elements at the festival, which featured appearances by Billy Eichner, Illana Glaser and Abby Jacobson, Rufus Wainwright, MIA and Solange.

RAPID GROWTH

The Vulture Festival continued to grow year-over-year, tripling in number of events from 2014 (13 events, 3K guests) to 2016 (35 events, 11K guests). In 2017, the Vulture Festival expanded to Los Angeles, for a yearly total of 82 events (46 in NY, 36 in LA), and a combined ticketed audience of 22.5K. The festival’s branding evolved with the festival, each iteration signifying an evolution over the previous years, but rooted in the same core values and aesthetic.

A Multi-Faceted Festival

The creative needs for the Vulture Festival evolved dramatically over the years as well. After keeping the brand relatively static from 2014 to 2015, in 2016 my team reinvented the look and feel dramatically, to signify the growth of the festival. In addition to adding even higher-profile talent, the festival had attracted large corporate sponsors, including AT&T and TNT. Also, for the first time, we launched a city-wide out-of-home campaign, with bus shelters, pole banners, and both traditional and digital billboards. Art Director Rachel Loeb developed a concept signifying the Vulture Festival’s multi-faceted, full spectrum entertainment offerings through a topographic texture and bright gradient color palate.  We used this treatment throughout the promotional campaign, and on-site at the Vulture Festival venue.

A Pop Culture Kaleidoscope

The Vulture Lounge, an après-event space with sponsor activations, grew into a destination in it’s own right, and I led the design of environmental graphics and a large mural to activate the space. Through this project, I realized how engaged I become when doing environmental graphics work—it takes me back to my graffiti roots, designing supersized graphics to fill physical space.

Vulture Flies West

When the Vulture Festival expanded to Los Angeles in the Fall of 2017, I worked with Art Director Jon Varriano to develop a translation of the Vulture Festival brand to the Hollywood market. After the initial concept we presented was shot down by our editorial partners, the team and I to returned to a concept development process I often use to develop ideas. After realizing that the venue, the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, is centered around an opulent swimming pool, we succeeded with an image of the Vulture Festival logo submerged in the turquoise waters of an LA pool.

A New Style

In 2018, there was a feeling that it was time for a completely new look and feel for Vulture Festival branding. My team worked with newly installed Chief Creative Officer to refresh the brand based on a concept of overlapping stickers, and applied the new treatment to the Vulture Festival’s marketing, website, OOH advertising, and environmental graphics. I again led design of environmental graphics for the Vulture Lounge, completing a massive collage mural of talent headshots, and large scale cut vinyl lettering throughout the space. See the 2018 case study here.

AND THAT’S A WRAP!

Launching a new festival, especially one in the entertainment and pop culture space, was incredibly thrilling. What I love about working on events is that they are essentially micro-brands that live for several months, get applied across multiple mediums, and then get reinvented next year. In the case of the Vulture Festival, leading the initial brand launch, which required selling the idea and execution through to the highest level of the company, was a huge success for me. I was also able to work, and lead a team, in different areas, such as website UI/UX, out of home advertising, and environmental graphics. My role was not just one of pre-event design, however. I also oversaw installation of graphics on site, and during the event, directed crews of photographers and video crews. I love of event production, and being in the mix as events unfold.

The irony is that in six installments of doing this festival, I never did see more that 10 minutes or so of any particular event.

And then there was the small matter of the time I had to eject the protesters… but that’s another story….

A HUGE shout out to the people who made Vulture Festival happen, and many with whom I shared this amazing journey: Larry Burstein, Adam Moss, Sona Hacherian, Ben WIlliams, Sue Bohlen, Tara Reilly, Reid Uhrich, Rachel Loeb, Jon Varriano, Lindsey Ribe, Katherine Esposito, Donye Harris, Karen Cattan, Melanie Klein, Dan Jasper, Steve Mumford, Pam Norwood, Cheryl Marker, Tim Conyers, Manny Getachew, Josh Wolk, Neil Janowitz, Jesse David Fox; all the Vulture editors and writers; Butch Vincenzo and the crew of photographers and editors from Getty Images, and most especially, a super shout out to art critic and snack supplier extraordinare Jerry Saltz—someday I’ll get to go on one of those museum tours.