Wake up and smell the coffee
Coffeehouse is Liberty University's largest student event, and while working as a Graphic Designer for Liberty's Student Activities department, I had the opportunity to brand 2 of them, which was a huge privilege.
Our theme for Spring 2020 was "The Late Show" themed off of late night shows like Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, and the like. I knew I wanted to keep the visuals minimalistic, yet fun. I had done a rather large body of illustrative work for Christmas Coffeehouse, and so I pitched the idea of doing a more photographic approach, based off of the bumper photos for Saturday Night Live.
Coffeehouse: The Late Show was a joy to help create.
Unfortunately, due to the Covid19 Pandemic, this event was cancelled at the last second. However, the 4 months I spent were not in vain, as my branding and creative work were carried over when the event was rescheduled to the spring of 2021.
Let’s talk about the mug.
Since each Coffeehouse event has it’s own feel and visual direction,
I wanted to make this one distinct.
So many late night talk shows have a branded coffee mug that sits on the desk of the host, which really inspired the iconography
Of course, coffee is literally in the name of the event, so it felt only natural to have a coffee mug be the star of our branding.
We also envisioned the mug as something people could take home with them from the event, which wound up being a really cool marketing strategy, and made for some really one-of-a-kind merch.
Creative Process
Here’s a little video of the creative process behind the mug.
Coming Up Next…
Since Coffeehouse was a variety show, I thought it would be fun to do photoshoots with some of the acts "SNL Style" to utilize in our marketing, and as Intros at the event, to mimic the late night talk-show structure.
These slides would go up on the screens at the venue to introduce each act.
We did a photoshoot with each act and used the photos to create the slides.
Doing a photographic aesthetic was a challenge for me.
Illustration was my safe space, so stepping outside of that was daunting.
It was a growing experience for me, having to direct the photoshoots with the acts myself, but it was totally worth it when I saw the finished product.
I've included some examples below of some of the act slides I created.
Last, but not least…
Coffeehouse: The Late Show was scheduled to take place on March 28th 2020. As anyone could tell you, that day would wind up being in the middle of the Covid19 lockdowns, and thus the event was cancelled. It was disappointing to see the lost potential of the event that I’d spent many hours pouring over, but luckily
it wasn’t all in vain.
The event was eventually resurrected the following year in the spring of 2021, with the branding and hard work from my team intact. Even though my internship had long ended, the creative body of work that we had created got a new lease on life. The visual direction and branding was followed through to completion, and I couldn’t be happier.
Even though I was unable to attend the event, it was incredible to see so much work reach fruition.
