Branding and Art Direction for the 2025 USU Graphic Design BFA Senior Showcase.
Every year, the graduating class of the Utah State University graphic design department hold an exhibition to show their progress through the degree. FINAL_FINAL, the theme of the 2025 senior showcase, is a play on the naming of files, more specifically files named at the end of a project when things start to get messy and every revision you hope is the last sadly won’t be.
To mimic the stressors experienced by seniors with dozens of open tabs, crashing software, and many “final” files, my art direction for the show is chaotic, overwhelming, and rooted in digitality.
The visuals for this show were voted on by my class based on a proposed poster. Seen here is that poster which served an inspiration for the showcase branding. Repeating windows and various error boxes make up the majority of the space, looking a lot like my homepage leading up to graduation. The pixelated typeface used in headers and the bright pops of overtly digital green and pink are other indicators that instantly call to mind a computer screen.
Collateral for this brand included posters, email graphics, web design, mailed flyers, merch, social media posts, and an amazing screen display that became the centerpiece of the event design. This display, made of screens scrounged from Goodwill, Facebook marketplace, and an occasional parents’ basement, featured a glitching motion graphic of windows sporatically opening and collapsing around a frantic cursor.
The marketing campaign took around 4 weeks to implement. With assets made and prints aquired, we hung posters, mailed postcards, sent emails, and launched a social media takeover of the USU design Instagram to promote the show and highlight those of the senior class. Each element was curated to feel intentionally branded and cohesive.