The REELQ Pittsburgh LGBT Film Festival series began as a space to showcase independent LGBTQ cinema that wasn’t readily available to mainstream audiences. As the designer for this year's branding, I was placed in charge of creating the look and feel of a festival that celebrates different identities through film.
The ask was to create a contemporary and meaningful design that exemplified the REELQ branding along with interesting visual elements that could then be expanded upon.
Key Art: Wilmer Gonzalez
Branding: Wilmer Gonzalez
Below are the first roughs to what would later be the skeleton to the rest of the festival branding.
After reviewing the initial drafts, the next instruction was to use a symbol that was to the point and easy to read as an LGBTQ+ Film Festival. I used the motif of a film strip, used a rainbow gradation, and the organization's purple to give deliberate visuals of the identity. This resulted in a contemporary and striking visual that could later be expanded into several different media.
Below are ads I created to express how queer film affects the world in easy to understand eye catching language.
Below are iterations of merchandise created for further exploration of the festival key art and its branding.
The stickers here act as identifiers to serve as a way to not confuse a person who wants to know the correct gender identity of another festival goer.
Thank you for viewing!