Responses by Dan O’Donnell, writer and art director, Partners + Napier.
Background: The purpose of the See Art campaign was to promote the Rochester Contemporary Art Center (RoCo), get the Rochester community to come see the art in the gallery, get local artists to make and enter art fro RoCo’s open exhibitions, and generally have art be a bigger part of people’s lives. The campaign used posters, social posts and direct mail to help raise awareness and funds for the center’s nonprofit gallery, artist studios and exhibitions.
Design thinking: Art is all around us, including in common phrases people use every day. We started to see the word art in other words. This inspired us to create full sentences where we could highlight the word art. While this was interesting, it hadn’t quite come full circle as a concept. We then tried to see if we could write phrases that had a whole secondary message within them. We found that the concept worked best when the not-so-hidden secondary message answered the thought posed by the initial phrase.
Challenges: Striking the right balance between the main headline and the not-so-hidden one. The secondary line needed to stand out enough for the viewer to notice it but not be so bold that it was read before the main line. We tried many different typefaces and colors to find the right combinations of weight, hues, layers, inlines, outlines and effects.
Favorite details: One of the nice surprises on this project was when we created the social component of the campaign. Originally, we had planned to just make static versions of the poster as social posts. However, during our presentation to sell the idea, we were showing a build of the concept to reveal the See Art line and realized that the idea could work as an animation as well. Motion graphic designer Lori Meyer created a dynamic animation build with the secondary line flickering on like a fluorescent light. What started as a simple poster campaign turned into an integrated media campaign with posters, animated social posts and direct mail.
Visual influences: The work was visually influenced by Barbara Kruger, Stefan Sagmeister and Fred Woodward, who incorporate conceptual ideas within their typography and design. In our work, the headline and the secondary line both stand alone, but when read in order, the hidden line actually answers the larger one.
Specific project demands: The beauty of working with a client like Bleu Cease is that he is creative at heart. As executive director and curator of the RoCo, he is well versed in design, color theory and concept. He got the idea right away and was even able to contribute to the look of the work. He recommended the background grid, which helped make the type pop even more.
At one point, he asked if we had any “extra” headlines. The posters were great to draw people in to the RoCo, but he also needed to request submissions for RoCo’s exhibition 6x6. We were able to rework some of the executions from seeing art to making art, and these were sent out as direct mail.
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