As seniors in the Graphic Design program at Sac State, Professor Lauren Kelly tasked us with a redesign for the 2021 Department of Design Spring Show. This assignment presented a unique challenge as we were designing for an event facing new circumstances that previous Spring Shows were not affected by. The members of our group for this project consist of Alex Keith, Elizabeth Keeling and John Stawiecki. We were presented with different possible track options for this redesign including web development and app development. Since we had all three enjoyed designing wayfinding for a previous case study on our own in this class, we opted to put our collective heads and unique skills as design students together to develop wayfinding, concept, and branding for the 2021 Department of Design Spring Show. This assignment also presented us with the opportunity to develop our experience in designing wayfinding, documenting our research, process, and final outcomes.
The Department of Design Spring Show is an annual exhibition showcasing the best work of graduating seniors as well as many undergraduate students from the programs of Graphic Design, Interior Architecture, and Photography from Sacramento State University. It is a very important annual event attracting attendees from all over the region, and gives the opportunity for students to present, showcase, and celebrate all their hard work during their time at Sac State. The Spring Show provides a unique opportunity for all students and faculty to get together under the same roof at the same time and mingle, network, meet each other, and revel about everything design and reaffirm why we do what we do. It is also a place where past alumni can reconnect with professors and meet the new students, and a place where prospective employers and the design community in the greater Sacramento region can get a first-hand look at the fresh new faces and talent in the design world.
Our concept was inspired by idea of the three disciplines of Graphic Design, Interior Architecture, and Photography coming together as one, for one night, in one place. As different as those three disciplines are, they all share the similarity of creative arts in the Department of Design in the College of Arts & Letters at Sacramento State. This led us to a recurring theme of three as one. We began exploring the concept and idea of three in the graphic style and feel of our wayfinding through our color palette, shapes used, typography, etc.
Because this is an event showcasing work from the creative departments of the University, the visual and spatial arts that reside at the intersection of art and cutting-edge technology, we felt it needed graphics and branding style to suit and reflect that. Rather than the more corporate or traditional look and feel of Sac State's branding as a whole, we needed to go in a more playful, energetic, dynamic, engaging, innovative, almost experimental direction, while remaining professional and cohesive and serving the work showcased in the Spring Show. One of our many goals was to create visual interest and excitement for this special and important annual event.
The Spring Show is normally held at the University Union Ballroom on the Sac State campus. It is an enormous room with ample space for tables and exhibitions for each student work along with places to mingle. Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, holding the Spring Show on campus is not a possibility. Instead the show this year will take place in a the much more intimate space of the Axis Gallery on S St. in downtown Sacramento. Rather than view this as an obstacle, we have embraced the limitations presented by this much smaller space and have attempted to design a show with this space in mind by having a touch-less, socially distanced, one-way traffic experience.
In order to better understand the physical dimensions of the Axis Gallery building and the surrounding area, we decided to visit the location in-person to make evaluations on some of the signage, wayfinding, and other design elements that we would incorporate to the exterior and interior of the building. One of our observations was that we could create territory markers on the street to draw people's attention to the building and create a "you are here" feel. Another idea was to incorporate the unique block shape of the facade of the building, essentially using the building itself as a canvas, to generate interest and interaction from visitors during the waiting experience before being admitted into the building.