Otakon Festival Rebrand
Project Type | Identity, Multimedia Campaign
Deliverables | Brand Identity, Brochure, Print Posters, Social Media, Video Animation
Overview
Otakon brings people together to celebrate Asian pop culture. This includes anime, a manga library, art vendors, food stands, maid cafés, music, video games, video panels, dance halls, photo suites, and even a cosplay contest. Otakon is full of fun entertainment for everyone in the family.
Solution
Otakon is all about enjoying the diversity and creativity of Asian culture. The thought process behind the rebrand is to immerse yourself in the digital side of Asian pop culture. Therefore, bright, modern, and youthful design elements were taken into the rebranding of Otakon. The objective of this rebranding is to captivate the audience through the successful visual display of some of the convention’s features and the ‘modern gamer’ culture
Concept
The concept behind the rebranding was to recreate Otakon's image under a more futuristic and fun light. Every aspect of the deliverables has the intended purpose of being unique and user-friendly in the same way we want them to experience the actual convention. It was really important to me to make it as inclusive for everyone as possible, but to not stray from the target audience.
Research
Extensive research was collected on competitors, overall objectives, and the kind of messaging and tone we wanted to set for the rebrand and we placed in the creative brief.
Before
Logo
The logo had many iterations in the beginning as I was able to come up with multiple concepts and ideas. My idea was to create a logo that alluded to the origin culture of the festival (Asian culture), but to give it a more modern feel as well.
Ultimately, I landed on one that was more focused on type. The concept behind the logo was to create 3D neon type that resembled the neon sign of Tokyo in a fun and modern way. A GIF animation was also required for the social media purposes of the project.
Brochure + Map
For the brochure, I decided to go for a large format because the map that was contained inside. Otakon expands throughout multiple floors of the Walter E. Washington Convention Center and so I wanted to make sure no detail was missed on the map. The brochure also opens from the left side and is read from left to write. I did this in order to allude to the manga that is available a at Otakon and the reason many people attend this festival. Finally, I also decided to give it a unique feature by attaching a bookmark as the opening tab to the brochure that the customer could use at convention's manga library and then take home as a keepsake.
Poster Series
I created a promotional poster series that would invite cosplay and anime fans to the convention but also welcoming new potential attendees to this event through eye-capturing visuals. The concept of the posters was to capture the memory of attending Otakon, a place where the fiction and reality collide.
Animation
An animation a short promotional piece for the festival was created and showcased some of the most popular services Otakon has to offer. The effects and upbeat music was used with the intention to set the tone of being a fun, friendly, and upbeat event. (Videos attained from stock videos sine these were the only videos available to me at the time).
Social Media
To promote the convention to newcomers and show them all that Otakon has to offer I decided to create an Instagram mockup to visually display and highlight some of the cool attractions and attendees at Otakon.
