Position Overview

FUSION XIX Hip Hop Dance Competition was the nineteenth iteration of one of the largest hip hop dance competitions on the west coast, where teams from around the world gather together and compete. As one of the Graphics Committee Team Leads, I worked with a partner to lead a team of six other members by assigning jobs and holding critique sessions. This role had us communicate closely with the event coordinators and marketing team leads regarding design requirements and deadlines and convey them to our team members. In addition to these duties, I also took part in designing various graphics that would be used as marketing material for the event. I will be explaining my design process for the poster and ticket in this case study.

Theme

Each year, FUSION has a different theme in which the art committees (graphics, decorations, and media) base their work off of. I had proposed the ‘Vaporwave’, and it was finalized as the theme after a meeting with the event coordinators and other art committee team leads. The vaporwave aesthetic features retro computer graphics, glitch art, various 3D-rendered objects such as Greek busts, and cyberpunk visuals.

Here are some example images I used as inspiration:

1200px-_Evolution__and_life_in_vaporwave

Poster Design Process

Graphic Information Requirements

"FUSION XIX Hip Hop Dance Competition"
[Address: Golden Hall 202 C Street, San Diego, CA 92101]
[Date: 4/20/19], [Doors Open: 5PM, Show Starts: 6PM]
QR Code
[Eventbrite Link]
Social Media
Make sure there's a colored and black&white version

Ideation and Sketching

Because this was the poster to advertise the event, it had to be bold and eye catching to attract more ticket sales. I wanted a clear central image as a point of entry to grab people’s attention and make them look at the poster. Here is a sketch I made that lays out text placement and features a Greek statue jumping out of an MS Paint window to fit the vaporwave theme. After gathering image resources, I laid out all the text and began editing my images in Adobe Photoshop until I was happy with the placement and visuals of everything.

Final Product

The final product was complete after adding color accents and more visual details. I decided to use blue and pink as the main colors to fit the vaporwave theme and incorporated gradients to blend the colors and images together. I focused primarily on image editing to create a more compelling central picture, while the text is laid out simply and easy to read.

Ticket Design Process

Graphic Information Requirements

"FUSION XIX Hip Hop Dance Competition",
[Date: 4/20/19], [Doors Open: 5PM, Show Starts: 6PM]
[Address: Golden Hall 202 C Street, San Diego, CA 92101]
Social Media
Fusion Website
MASA Logo

Ideation and Sketching

For the ticket design, I worked collaboratively with a partner. We discussed our design ideas together and drew out some sketches of what kind of imagery we wanted to include. Because the ticket had a tearable stub, we thought it would be interesting to add some sort of visual component at the section to be torn. After deliberating on which sketch to base the final design on, we began experimenting with editing on Photoshop.

Final Product

Our final design included three color schemes, the green-teal for adult tickets, purple-pink for child tickets, and orange-yellow for toddler tickets.

1/3

Reflection

Overall, my time as one of the FUSION XIX Graphics Committee Team Leads has not only just developed my skills for graphic design, but also taught me a lot about how large public events are run, leadership skills, and the importance of communicating between teams.