LA Shorts Film Festival
Transmedia Branding
The Los Angeles Shorts International Film Festival is the longest-running annual short film festival that celebrates short film achievements of industry newcomers and veterans. This rebrand brings into focus the essence of filmmaking with graphic elements inspired by the slate board and script, as well as LA's vibrantly unapologetic attitude that attracts aspiring filmmakers to the city.
I chose to hypothetically rebrand LA Shorts for my interest in cinema culture and opportunity for me to explore the short film format. This project allowed me to apply and better understand the fluidity of branding across multiple media types for a seamless, cohesive brand experience.
The LA Shorts macro identity is dynamic and flexible to allow for the film festival to be franchised to other major cities, such as San Francisco and New York City.
The identity seamlessly integrates across media types. From essential collateral pieces and environments to event wristbands, the graphic element from the clapperboard “slant” is flexible in its length to convey time and may be used as information containers.
Lighting the Way
As a nod to cinema, I chose to design a projection-based wayfinding system. This allows festival organizers and producers to easily modify and update information at a moment’s notice. Projections can also be conveniently set up and dismantled at the end of the festival.
Lights! Camera! Party!
It’s not a Hollywood party without a celebration! To kick off the annual festival, I created a hypothetical pool party that would take place at the historic Roosevelt Hotel Pool as an extension to the LA Shorts brand. In true LA fashion, the party begins in late afternoon, when guests can soak up the last drops of glorious sunlight before they party hard in and around the pool painting by LA’s resident artist David Hockney.
LA Shorts At Home
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I adapted the LA Shorts festival concept to be viewable as a streaming platform within the comfort and safety of home. "LA Shorts at Home" would be a downloadable app for Apple TV, Roku, Chromecast, etc. The user interface is streamlined for ease of use in this strange time when many events are forced to cancel or adapt to the times.
Credits—
Brad Bartlett, instructor
Brad Bartlett, instructor