Date: 2015-16

Team: Hannah Bakken, Joe Howe, Qamuuqin Maxwell, Lakia Solomon, Trev True

Role: Co-Producer, UX/Visual Designer

Background:

The Oregon Fringe Festival now in its ninth iteration takes place every spring in Ashland Oregon.

Challenge:

Create the third iteration of a weeklong regional arts festival with international heritage.

Research:

We began by taking a deep dive in to the previous two iterations of OFF. Key observations

1. While the festival encompassed theater, music and visual arts, theater had been the dominant form to date.

2. 80% of previous budgets had been spent on visiting talent.

3. Visual identity, web and social presence lacked a clear direction and felt stale.

Solution:

We decided that Oregon Fringe 16 would be equally balanced between music, theater, and visual arts with preference given to projects by local artists which incorporated direct audience participation. I was asked to spearhead the UX/Visual redesign.

Deliverables:

Group: We commissioned events to open and close the festival and selected 40 proposals from more than 100. We closely monitored each projects progress, awarded micro grants where needed, gained site clearances from city and university administrations, dealt with insurance, accounting, public safety plans, signage, waypoints, schedules, and promotion. We created a diverse leadership team and worked closely with equity and inclusion leaders to remove physical and social barriers to create a fun and welcoming festivALL experience.

Individual: I developed a new visual identity including colorway, logo, typeface, graphic standards, website, and branded merchandise. The existing website was WordPress based and only accessible via the university CMS which required direct IT support for every modification and update. We needed something nimble and better looking so I built and hosted a custom site using Adobe Muse which remained in use for three years.