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Asian Film Festival of Dallas Gets a New Look!

July 20, 2016July 20, 2016Shelley LaiLeave a comment

This year, I was given the opportunity to design the marketing materials for the Asian Film Festival of Dallas (AFFD). They were open to a complete redesign and gave me creative freedom – what designer doesn’t love that? It was a demanding schedule, but I was up for the challenge!

The first thing I did was update the logo, giving it a clean, contemporary look. I chose new fonts, along with a new color palette (primary: black, white, grey; secondary: red, gold). These styles were then extended to the website and promotional videos for AFFD.

With all the changes and updates approved, I started on the festival program. This, too, received a healthy redesign: from the cover, front of book pages and ad placement, to special section pages, program schedule and film reviews. Response to the new cover layout was overwhelming, but I was even more pleased with AFFD‘s reaction to the new layout of the film reviews and program as a whole. I wanted the reviews to be easy to read, and eye-catching at the same time. With this in mind, compelling movie stills were placed at the top of the page to grab the reader’s attention. Since there was a lot of info for each film, it made sense to lay it all out in a grid-like format. This made it easier to read. Another thing I added was the special premier labels to let festival goers locate premiere films more easily. Once I redesigned the festival program, I then updated the look of AFFD’s VIP badges, flyer, poster, vouchers, ballots, Facebook profile images, and T-shirts.

Fortunately, I was able to attend the festival this year to see all the new marketing materials in person and, finally, to meet the new people I’d been working with. All in all, I think everything was well-received and came out nicely.

If you “love subtitles” like I do, the Asian Film Festival of Dallas (AFFD) runs through July 21st, so it’s still not too late to check it out!

AFFD Marketing

Poster

Festival Program

T-shirt

Planning the program with awesome handwriting.

Flyer

Festival Program

VIP Badges

Vouchers and Ballots

Festival Program

Elegant Austin Opera Invitation Design

January 12, 2015Shelley LaiLeave a comment

Here’s a recent project I did for Austin Opera. They wanted an elegant invitation designed, along with a reply card, benefits insert, and envelopes. I’m really pleased with how they turned out. Originally, a small floral mask icon was placed above the return address on the envelope. However, to keep the printing cost down, we decided to leave it off. I think it still came out looking great keeping it nice and simple!

Travel Feature Magazine Design

January 9, 2015January 9, 2015Shelley LaiLeave a comment

This is a feature layout I did for The Society Diaries, a high-end glossy magazine. When laying out a feature about a destination, I feel that the pictures should be the focus point and be able to speak for themselves. With this, the opener started with a two-page spread image with just the header and subhead. A few key words were highlighted in a complementary blue to make it a little more interesting than just keeping all the text white. Since the feature was about paradise in Hawaii, I felt it was important to keep the layout clean, simple and breathable. Ideally, I would’ve liked to have another spread just for the island photo shown on the second spread. It’s such a gorgeous photo and it encompasses the beautiful island of Hawaii. Overall, I’m really happy with how the feature turned out!