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Albert EL Fresco Tie Dye Background

ALBERT EL FRESCO

Albert EL Fresco Branding Webpage Banner

Albert EL Fresco is a summer pedestrian area in downtown East Lansing, Michigan. I was heavily involved with the production, maintenance, marketing, and branding of Albert EL Fresco during my time as a Marketing & Advertising Creative Intern (and then Marketing & Advertising Creative Specialist) with the City of East Lansing. 

 

The Albert EL Fresco space is colorful, welcoming, exciting, and ever-changing.  I wanted to create a brand design that encapsulated those characteristics while still being functional and legible.

Directional Signage

This is where the tie-dye + Bilo font brand idea began. As a Marketing & Advertising Creative Intern with the City of East Lansing, I was tasked with designing signs to direct foot and car traffic around Downtown East Lansing's new summer pedestrian area, "Albert EL Fresco".

The Albert EL Fresco space is colorful, welcoming, exciting, and ever-changing.  I wanted to create a design that encapsulated those characteristics while still being functional and legible.

 

The projects below were subsequently born, and the tie-dye + Bilo font directional sign design spilled into an opportunity to fully brand the Albert EL Fresco space.

Clock Tower Banners

The concept for these "Clock Tower Calendar of Events Banners" was born out of a need for post-pandemic economic recovery. In an effort to increase foot traffic (and consequently drive local revenue), the idea was born to highlight upcoming public events in a central location downtown. 

I personally worked with a local printing company to come up with a cost-effective banner design that includes clear pockets to slip the appropriate month, date, and event inserts into each month. This method effectively allowed the banners to stay up-to-date without the need to print entirely new banners each month.

The "DNA" banners were part of a larger DNA campaign I worked on for Downtown East Lansing. My goal was to integrate design aspects of the DNA brand with the Albert EL Fresco brand — hence: tie-dye + double helix.

Interactive Decals

The Albert EL Fresco community feedback sticker was designed to be stuck on infrastructure (table tops, chair arm rests, planters, etc) within the Albert EL Fresco pedestrian area as a passive means for visitors to give the City of East Lansing their feedback on the space via a SurveyMonkey survey. These stickers were successful in collecting hundreds of responses from community members and tourists alike within the span of a couple months, giving City employees important insights to take into account when planning for future improvements to the Albert EL Fresco space.

The Takeout Tuesday stickers were one piece of a larger Takeout Tuesday campaign run by Downtown East Lansing to encourage spending at local restaurants. Rolls of these stickers were provided to participating restaurants, who were to stick them on all takeout containers ordered on Tuesdays. Customers were to then scan the QR code on the decal, which would take them to the @downtowneastlansing Instagram page, where they would find further instructions to share a photo on their Instagram story of them enjoying their takeout to be entered in a weekly giveaway for the chance to win a $100 DNA card.

Live Music Schedule

The City of East Lansing hired multiple artists to perform live music in Albert EL Fresco throughout the summer.  I utilized a mixture of inexpensive mediums to advertise these performances, including posters posted throughout downtown, social media posts, and Facebook events. I was sure to incorporate elements from the Albert EL Fresco brand in the designs to indicate its association with the Albert EL Fresco space.