Archive

Creative & Art Direction + Graphic Design + Photography & Videography

One of four promotional videos. Directed, shot and edited by me. Click here to view on Instagram.

“As we write our story, we write our history…”

This became the unofficial tagline for the Advertising + Graphic Design Fall 2024 Portfolio Show, ARCHIVE, of which I served as Creative and Art Director.

While brief, this sentence captures the primary idea that informed my conceptualization of ARCHIVE—that all we do quickly becomes what we’ve done. Our presents—these live, active moments and experiences—instantly become our pasts. As we each navigate our lives, we contribute to “archives”, both our own and those of others we impact.

We are constantly crafting, editing, and arranging collections of records and data that inform who we currently are, and tell of where we’ve been.

Character

ARCHIVE is all about capturing and preserving live moments and action. Aesthetically, it relies heavily on human intervention and carries an unpolished, raw, often chaotic visual character. A key visual tool became handwritten annotations, which both allowed our unique marks to be fully displayed, and helped to create the very active, undone feel that was intended.

Part of the invitation design, featuring my handwriting.

Primary logo.

Sweet Sans Pro + my handwriting.

Actualization

Throughout ARCHIVE, there is an emphasis on tactile media and tangible experiences. The show’s primary promotional materials—invitations and print posters (pictured below)—were multidimensional, each containing two components. The invitation included an annotated letter explaining the ideas propelling ARCHIVE, and an annotated postcard with the most vital information. Harkening to the idea of archival preservation, the postcard was placed inside a glassine sleeve.

Full letter.

Postcard.

Full invitation.

Back of letter.

Not shown: vintage postage stamps.

Half-sheet, which was paired with the poster below.

Main poster, which was posted along with half-sheet shown above. Annotations by my cohort and me. Design and photography by me.

Actualization: Campaign

Em’s items

The “representative items” series was a major player in ARCHIVE’s social media campaign. Each member of my 14-person cohort selected pieces they felt represented them most authentically. Rather than our likenesses, these items would be our introductions to our audience on Instagram.

The series served two purposes: (1) to emphasize our individual archives by showcasing what would be included in them; and (2) to circumnavigate unconscious bias among audiences identified by previous cohorts, which showed that profiles of students that were woman-presenting and/or people of color were typically interacted with the least on both the program’s website and social media pages.

Click the captions to view the full Instagram posts.