Bernardo Margulis

DesignPhiladelphia 2017 Event Guide

Developing a visual style for the longest-running design fair

DesignPhiladelphia, is the longest-running design fair, with design-related events across Philadelphia, over ten days, every October. The initial scope was to design the festival guide booklet. The festival committee did not establish a theme, so I ideated a few concepts, landing on "Lucky 13" to honor the 13th edition of the festival, and focusing on human-designed, luck-related objects. With a solid concept, the team decided to expand the scope to include email headers, postcards, and environmental graphics.
  • Role: Art director, designer
  • Client: Center for Architecture and Design
  • Employer: This Makes Me Happy (self employed)
  • Engagement: Concept development, editorial design, collateral
  • Accolade:
    • The event guides were selected for the AIGA Philadelphia Design Awards showcase
  • Impact:
    • Thanks to the successful project, I continued collaborating with DesignPhiladelphia
Covers and sample pages for the event guide; working with the printers, we were able to produce eight different covers without increasing the cost
A collection of book covers for the event guide. The covers are arranged in a grid of four columns and two rows. Each cover has the DesignPhiladelphia logo, the title Event Guide, and additional text. The top left cover has a composition of line engraving images of an umbrella, a dice, a ladder, a saltshaker, a mirror, a horseshoe, and a broom. The other covers have a single line engraving image of each of the seven objects.
Email headers
Email header featuring the DesignPhiladelphia logo, a line engraving of an umbrella with the text Lucky 13, and the event date and URL. Email header featuring the DesignPhiladelphia logo, a line engraving of a dice with the text Lucky 13, and the event date and URL. Email header featuring the DesignPhiladelphia logo, a line engraving of a broom with the text Lucky 13, and the event date and URL.
Postcard
Postcard invitation for the DesignPhiladelphia opening party
Window graphics, environmantal graphics, and branded installation.

Process

I had an initial consultation with the client, including DesignPhiladelphia's executive director and marketing lead, to determine the parameters and needs

Mind-mapping and scketching exploring various ideas
Hand-drawn mind map, the page is titled Planning
Hand-drawn sketches with notes, the page is title 13 stripes
Hand-drawn thumbnail sketches with notes, the page is titled Superstition
Hand-drawn sketches with text on them, the page is titled Patterns

Since there was no theme, I did some research and mind-mapping to come up with a few ideas. Upon iterating over various themes, I narrowed it down to three concepts to present: Lucky 13 (inspired by human-made objects related to luck), Thirteen Stripes (inspired by the American flag, since its designer, Betsy Ross, lived in Philadelphia), and Philly local inventions.

Sample spreads of concepts that were not selected
Two-page spread, with seven red horizontal stripes of different lengths on the left side and a table of contents on the right side
Two-page spread, with a hand-drawn pattern on the left side and a table of contents on the right side

The client selected one concept. I expanded the page types and once we got content I completed the guide. I worked with the printer to maximize production, which resulted in eight different covers.

The client was so happy with the work that they asked to expand it to various applications that were not in the initial scope.

Work Samples

© Bernardo Margulis