Lunar Gala 2018: FEROX

Creative Direction / Event Design / Advertising 

Overview

Lunar Gala is one of the largest fashion events in Pittsburgh, having sold out over 1200 seats each year with 140+ students involved in producing, designing, modeling, and dancing in the show. Students across all majors and cultures at Carnegie Mellon create original and creative lines, infusing technology and complex materials with wearable fashion. 

Role

I was the LG 2018 Creative Director, leading a team of Print, Motion, Web, Brand, and Experience designers. The entire Creative team was about 17 designers. I created the concept behind FEROX, strategized the advertising techniques, and directed the creation of our deliverables through 3 key phases: Day of Show, Advertising, and Recruitment. 

Duration

This was a 10 month project. 

Outcomes

Following the show in February 2018, our work has also been displayed in the Carnegie Museum of Art's theatre space for a Third Thursday event. 

In May of 2017, I restructured the timeline, deliverables, hierarchy, and coordination of the team.

I helped the producers select who would join the Creative team. We had 17+ design students enter Creative, and I separated them into groups based off of what I knew their interests to be: Brand, Experience, Print, Motion, or Web. In the past, each group would work in only quick, random spurts and create independently of each other, but I was interested in changing that so that we could form more of a collaboration across specialities and ages. There was a lot of mentorship gained for members throughout the year.

I worked with just the producers to create a new system diagram of the structure of the Board through drawing on our past experiences as members of LG. I created a flow from Brand and Experience to Web, Print, and Motion. The reason I did this is that in the past there was a problem where Print, Web, and Motion didn't know who was supposed to be creating the brand. I realized that first the brand concept had to be created. Experience would determine what deliverables we would need to shape the best campaigns. Then, Print, Web, and Motion helped to visualize how the brand would take form. 

We met at least weekly for 10 months straight, which was a huge change from how Creative ran prior to this year. I knew this would be difficult since 17 is such a large group of people. But, I found that it allowed for better coordination, since it created communication and critique across the sub-teams.  In the past, Print, Web, and Motion teams would work independently of each other. But working all together, we were able to work effectively as a huge design team, meeting on an almost weekly basis, creating a cohesive brand language that works across different media. I am proud that I was able to maintain interest and passion within the team for 10 months, and coordinate the production of the show’s recruitment, advertising, and day-of-show visuals and experience.

At our very first meeting, we began brainstorming about what the theme would be. Each year, it is inspired by a quality of the year's animal of the Chinese New Year. This year was the dog. After writing down qualities, the one that stood out was "Instinctual." 

I helped budget with the Producers regarding the Creative Team's budget. The entire show cost upward of $40,000 this year. 

I also helped the PR team to format a proposal that would be sent to different organizations in the Pittsburgh area. Our most notable sponsor was Red Bull. I also independently drafted proposals around campus for funding of the Creative Team specifically. 

Working with the brand designer, we came up with the word, "Ferox," latin for savage. We were interested in what that would look like in a digital future, rather than in like a jungle, how it might typically be visually interpreted. 

To get the Print, Web, and Motion team started, we showed some initial sketches of how Ferox could look, and set constraints on color.

After Print, Web, and Motion played around with assets for a month, we created a final Brand Guideline showing the visual concept and constraints for the Creative team.  

I did not get to pick the lines of the show. However, we did run line selection a little bit differently this year. Without telling applicants what the theme was, we asked them to identify their line as fitting: Wild, Defiant, Bold, Tame, Oppressed, or Chaotic. That way, we would be able to work their lines into a cohesive narrative from knowing about the concepts, even though the outfits hadn't been built yet. 

The Producers also started the "Local Designer Initiative" to invite local designers to participate in the show. I helped them promote this as well. 

Once the Design team had chosen their lines, I tried to connect them by breaking them into 4 distinct parts, that would later be separated into two acts. Our copywriter then helped build a world of FEROX out of the story, involving the "Interplanetary Federation for Peace and Protection" and a fake backstory for "Lunar Gala" in the year of 2268.

To prevent the Creative Team from having to do too much work on day of show, we introduced the Day of Show Crew concept, lead by the Experience team. With a group of 29 CMU-affiliated and non-CMU-affiliated people, we assigned roles and tasks for the entrance line to Wiegand, VIP lounge, and Intermission experiences. 

On day of show, we finished setting up Wiegand. I helped the Print team fold and place their magazines and helped the Experience team to set up the spaces outside of Wiegand. Production Team calibrated the screens and light, finishing set-up of the Tech elements of the show.