SPI Kite Round-Up Branding
Portfolio of the Branding for The SPI Kite Round-Up
South Padre Island (SPI) Kite Round-Up | 2/1/2009 - present
Graphic & Web design, photography, creative writing, flash animation, and illustration
www.SPIkiteroundup.com - The South Padre Island (SPI) Kite Round-Up is a community kiteboarding event held annually on South Padre Island, Texas. In 2009, the event organizers approached me to create an advertising campaign that would be marketed across industry magazines, newspapers, and websites. A unique aspect to this project was the idea of creating a universal look and fighting the urge to make each piece independent. Until I took on this project, I was under the impression that creativity came with change, but throughout the ad campaign for the SPI Kite Round-Up, I focused my efforts on creating continuous design across all mediums, in an attempt to blend creativity with consistency.
Not completely satisfied with the original logo work, I decided that the identity of the South Padre Island (SPI) Kite Round-Up required the construction of its own 'Round-Up' font. Incorporating the 'Round-Up' font into the logo, website graphics, t-shirts, letterhead, and other project media created for a recognizable brand. Taking the original Joomla! website, which was hacked into and defaced after year one, I decided to hand-code the backend myself, allowing for better security measures and a better ability to draw on the advertising campaign's graphic look for the front end of the site. Integration of my event photography, creative writing, and flash animation put the final touches on the project.
On the right you can see the full spectrum of design media. Starting on top is the original drawings of the 'Round-Up' font, followed below by its incorporation into the logo, magazines ads, web banners, and t-shirts. The second to last image is a series of photographs and accompanying editorial published in the SBC Kiteboarding Magazine. The final image showcases an event photograph of mine published in Southern Living Magazine.
Possibly the most challenging aspect of the overall project was remaining motivated on post-editing the photographs and generating editorial content after the event had finished. Meeting artwork deadlines, photographing the event, finalizing web content, and other necessary duties expended a huge amount of energy and time leading up to the event. So continuing to aggressively work on the project even after participants and organizers went home proved to be difficult, but also generated some of the most rewarding and notable work.
