Chicago has a uniquely stormy, husky, brawling theatre scene. It is the birthplace of storefront theatre, and the home of the best stages this side of the Mississippi and that side of Broadway. Even The New York Times admitted in 2018 that "Chicago is changing theatre, one storefront at a time." Sponsored by the City of Chicago, the 2019 Year of Chicago Theatre is a year long celebration and promotion of everything from small storefronts and basement stages to big budget musicals across the city.
This proposal for the visual identity of the program is an abstraction of shop windows and bulletin boards crowded with flyers. From that concept I created a system that is joyfully cluttered, and has the same boundless youthful energy as the performers it promotes. The sparkling color palette, and simple abstraction, compliments the relationship between the two typefaces, between which there's just enough friction to make some sparks fly. This endlessly stackable, remixable, and flexible system can confidently take the stage on every application and still project its voice all the way to the nosebleeds.
