the sixth stage
of sleep branding
BRANDING, EVENT PROMO
ROLE: art director, branding, social media
TOOLS: photoshop, indesign
COLLATERAL: poster, postcard invitations, social media visuals (facebook, instagram, daily hive)
CREDIT: nelson tam (event photography)
The Sixth Stage of Sleep was a two-day pop up shop/gallery hosted by myself and three other friends in creative fields that was catered to youth who are interested in fashion design, photography and art. The event took place at a rented gallery space from thisopenspace. It featured unique hand-made garments from fashion designers, 5″ x 7″ photographic prints, and my paintings. The event also had a selection of magazines on display such as 032c, Prodism, and Inventory.
The Sixth Stage of Sleep reflects on the five existing stages of sleep and considers the existence of another sixth stage. In my own ink paintings for this show, I painted only visuals that I recalled from my dreams.
We made sure to notify friends, teachers and family of the event on Instagram, Facebook, and on the Daily Hive. We sent invitations to store managers and put up posters for the event all around downtown and in our schools, Emily Carr University and Vancouver Community College. We also gathered some volunteers that helped us set up the space and manage the front desk as well as purchases. Together, the four of us curated and arranged a space that suited the work and the atmosphere we wanted to have for our event.
Event Photography
Printed materials - includes poster and invitations
Social Media Branding - includes Facebook, Instagram, Daily Hive advertisement
the Instagram photo was posted on co-hosters' respective accounts.
PROJECT CREATIVE PROCESS
RESEARCH
This project is a collaboration between creatives who wanted to make an event where fellow emerging artists and creative youth could attend. It was a showcase gallery event but also a pop-up shop that aimed to connect fellow artists and engage in the local creative community.
Many of the discussions and decisions that were made for this project happened during group meetings. Collectively, the theme was chosen to be the Sixth Stage of Sleep. There are only 5 stages of sleep, and we wanted to ask, "What if there was a 6th stage?". We each drew inspiration from our dreams and interpreted the theme in our own mediums.
In terms of the visual design, the colour blue was made as a collective decision, in response to a specific colour that a group member recalled from a dream. It also has a calm, somewhat introspective association that we liked. Research consisted of visuals that depicted or referenced sleep, including Elizabeth Heyert's "The Sleepers" images (image 3) and Lord Frederic Leighton's paintings, particularly "To Sleep" (image 1).
BRAINSTORMING
As we discussed the imagery, I decided to scrap the idea of referencing classical paintings or visuals like the above because. Although beautiful, they tend to recall oil paintings and older art movements, but we wanted to have an event that was very modern. To speak to that, I decided to take a purely typographic approach with the collateral, and to let the colour that we chose be a significant and bold part of the layouts.
I also defined the brand personality while considering the branding, and decided the branding should be both exciting and sophisticated.
THUMBNAILS
These are some thumbnails that consider both layout for posters and the logo. I chose and further refined the logo from one of these thumbnails, making sure to keep in mind a contemporary, modern style that would suit the mood of the event.
I sorted through many typefaces to find a font that suits the logo - the sans serif is more modern and contemporary than a serif, and as I did thumbnails, I realized a more minimal and bold style without excess embellishments would suit our event the best.
ROUGHS
Some layout considerations for the postcards/posters are as follows, and as some layout considerations were already made in the thumbnails, I made several other iterations, before going into InDesign to play with the layout. Many roughs and versions were made digitally.
COMPREHENSIVES
These are the comprehensives for the posters, postcard invitations, and Facebook banners. From these, the final versions were created for the social media sites and other promo.
Poster comprehensives
Postcard invite comprehensives
Facebook banner comprehensives
TAKEAWAY
This project was a great chance to connect with fellow emerging artists in the local community, and was a great experience to curate a pop up shop from start to finish.
In terms of branding, I would've changed the paper that we printed the posters on - they were a little flimsy and did not necessarily convey the sense of quality that we would've liked. This shade of blue was decided upon as a group, but I wasn't really able to steer the group towards a blue that does not remind me as much of Facebook. If I were able to choose this blue again, I would choose a dreamier alternative.
Personally being a part of curating an experimental gallery was a truly unique experience, and we had considerable success with this project, not only in sales, but also because we were able to meet other artists. I was very proud that I was able to both create a series of paintings and do the branding for this project.