For this project, I was tasked with choosing an event to create a type-based poster for, as well as other advertisement designs and merchandise. Christmas is my favorite holiday so I decided to pick a Christmas themed event that most Austinites have grown up with. My main goal for this project was to make my design reflect my event being an unmissable holiday experience.
Research & Discovery
As the most cherished and longest-running holiday tradition in Texas’ capital city, the Austin Trail of Lights, attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors from Central Texas and around the globe each year.
What began as a small gathering in 1965 known as the "Yule Fest," a gift to the city of Austin from Austin Parks and Recreation Department, has now grown to be a community-wide celebration of the unique spirit and people that make Austin the place we love to call home. The Trail of Lights now features more than 2 million lights illuminating the park, 90 lighted holiday trees and more than 70 other holiday displays and lighted tunnels. Today, the Austin Trail of Lights is one of the three largest events in Austin and receives national accolades while remaining a deeply cherished local tradition.
One thing I noticed when researching this event was that there actually weren't as many adverts as I thought and I struggled to find examples of past designs or campaigns.
Creative Brief
My main goals for this project were to make sure the poster I create conveys that the Trail of Lights is fun, family-friendly, and an unmissable experience. As a kid, the Trail of Lights felt like such a magical and special event; I want to make my designs feel that way as well.
Mood Boards
For my mood boards, I wanted to explore three different and distinct styles. The top one is vintage Christmas themed, featuring old school illustrations, a more muted color scheme, and rough/distressed types. The second style I called "Merry and Bright", which focused on bright pops of color, fun imagery, and an overall bold and bright look. And the last style was cozy and warm, having soft and comforting tones.
Type Exploration
I created one type exploration sheet for each style above, exploring as many options as possible.
Concept Development
Here are fifteen of my sketches, exploring either a bold theme, cozy theme, or vintage theme.
Digital Drafts
With the help of my peers, I narrowed down three of my best designs and created digital drafts to see the concepts in action. The first one was okay and probably the strongest out of the original three. The second was a nightmare, and I felt pretty unmotivated to finish this specific style. And lastly, I decided to explore a neon theme. I ended up falling in love with the neon lights effect and couldn't pass up the opportunity to do something fun and new to me.
I tweaked this design what felt like a hundred times, going from too little (the left design) to too much (the right design). But after weeks of edits, I think I ended up finding a perfect middle ground.
Final Design
Mockup Sketches
After finishing up my poster, it was time to expand it into a full blown campaign. Here I sketched out some horizontal ads as well as merch and pass designs.
Mockups
Reflection
This project ended up being a great learning experience for me. It was my first experience designing multiple assets for one event so I got to learn how to make my designs cohesive across multiple deliverables. It was also my first time trying out a new and unfamiliar style! In the end, I think this was one of my all time favorite projects of my college career and successfully achieved my project goals of making a design that's fun, family-friendly, and magical. My end results really reflect how special the Trail of Lights is.