Archive

Creative & Art Direction + Graphic Design + Photography & Videography

One of four promotional videos. Directed, shot and edited by me. Sound on!

“As we write our story, we write our history.”

This became the unofficial tagline for the Advertising + Graphic Design Fall 2024 Portfolio Show, ARCHIVE, of which I served as Creative and Art Director.

While brief, this sentence captures the primary idea that informed me while conceptualizing ARCHIVE—the idea that all that we do quickly becomes what we’ve done. Our presents—these live and active moments and experiences—become our pasts instantaneously. As we each navigate our lives, we contribute to “archives”, both our own and those of every other entity that we impact.

We are constantly crafting, editing and arranging collections of records and data that inform who we currently are and tell of where we’ve been.

Character

ARCHIVE is all about capturing and preserving live moments and action. Aesthetically, it relies heavily on human intervention, and thus carries an unpolished, raw, often chaotic visual character. One visual tool employed heavily was the use of handwritten annotations, so that others would be able to literally see our unique markings (our handwriting, which displays notes of our thoughts and ideas) left behind.

The logo serves as a prime example of this, as it is a simple wordmark annotated with grammatical symbols to denote significance.

Actualization

Invitations

Throughout ARCHIVE, there is an emphasis on tactile media and tangible experiences. The show invitations—ARCHIVE’s introduction to many of its potential guests and spectators—are multidimensional, containing two key components: an annotated letter that articulates the ideas and inspiration behind ARCHIVE, and an annotated postcard that reiterates the most vital information (i.e. show date, location and time).

Part of the invitation design, which features ARCHIVE’s primary logo at the center and my handwriting.

Back of letter.

Multi-dimensional print invitations. Not featured: vintage postage on envelope.

Announcements

Keeping with the theme of documenting real life and work as it was being created, photography and videography were significant pieces of ARCHIVE’s promotion.

Like the invitations, the primary promotional poster was also multi-dimensional, featuring a large and very visually active image accompanied by a half-sheet of paper listing show information. The image-based poster is purely for attention-grabbing purposes, and makes for a wonderful keepsake.

ARCHIVE’s initial Instagram post, which carries themes seen in the main poster.

Logo and components.

Harkening to the idea of preserving for archival purposes, the postcard is placed inside a glassine sleeve—typically used for storing film reels and photographs, as glassine is resistant to oil, dirt, sunlight and other environmental factors that would age or destroy an image.

Each of these pieces is printed on speckletone paper of varying off-white hues. They were then paper-clipped together, and mailed inside of a kraft-tone envelope that featured vintage postage stamps.

Back of postcard.

Promotional poster. Annotations of logotype by my classmates and me. Design and photography by me.

Full letter.

Half-sheet with show information.

The “representative items” series was a major player in ARCHIVE’s social media campaign. Each member of my 14-person cohort selected a collection of pieces that best represented them personally. Rather than images ourselves, these photos served as our introductions and initial identifiers to our audience on Instagram.

The reason behind this decision was two-fold: (1) to emphasize our individual “archives” by showcasing items that would be included in them; and (2) to circumnavigate unconscious bias among audiences identified by previous cohorts, which showed that students that were woman-presenting and/or people of color were typically clicked on the least (in comparison to students that were male-presenting and/or white).

Beginnings

Wordy brainstorms.

This video of my annotating the logotype played upon visiting the portfolio show’s website, thanks to Lily Swing’s web design skills. Again, sound on!

ARCHIVE brand board.

ARCHIVE’s visual identity is very representative of its development. I began with a pen and paper, and multiple messy word maps and brain dumps. After stumbling upon a word that felt right, I continued to develop the language and aesthetic of ARCHIVE in tandem.