San Diego International Film Festival Rebrand

Whilst looking for inspiration, I came across the San Diego International Film Festival rebrand by Mering, a Californian agency.

Initially the rebrand stood out to me based upon the dispersion of colour since every colour and shade is used at least twice in areas which give balance to the poster above. For example, the blood red stripe within the gradient of the shape on the right-hand of the poster, can also be found within the bottom left-hand corner of the advertisement.

I find the use of the gradient interesting as within my own projects I have yet to use this technique, I can understand how the technique works to draw the eye to a focal point, as this is exactly what occurred in this context. From this, I have thought about using tool in my own development.

Noticeably, there are a handful of themes running through the abstract rebrand. Starting off with the type, it is kept to a san serif typeface, using all capital letters from the same family font. The type is also light in colour and positioned within the margin lines, with either a right or left skew, there is no centred text. In terms of colour, as I have previously mentioned how the colour gives the poster balance, I shall move onto the analogous colour palette. The theme that I notice with the colour palette is rather obvious. With purple, pink and yellow its main colour scheme, whilst the gradient effect provides other shades and the white text giving off highlight. On the right-hand side of the poster, the wavy pattern is repeated with slight alteration.

In contrast, there are aspects of the design that stand out to be different. For example, there is a mixture of both sharp edged shapes and smooth style shapes. I find this to be effective as it links to the variation of films that will be featured in the festival itself. There is a mixture of sizing in general. For example with the type especially and with the shapes and subject matter.

I find that each area has managed to be filled in some way, yet this does not give the feeling of chaos due to the fact that it is not overwhelmed, Mering’s work tells the viewer everything they need to know, without being bombarded. The overlapping of shape and pattern in the background also help the text to be pushed out to the eye so that everything is clear.

From looking closer into the San Diego International Film Festival rebrand I have learned how important the use of colour really is, how it can direct they eye around the area and emphasise the more significant aspects of a piece. Mering seemed to do this without going overboard which I would be afraid of.

You should definitely go and view the redesign of the festival as I found it very helpful and interesting.

Emily :)

PS. All images came from ItsNiceThat.