The Return of the Rodeo
creative direction
dillo day 2022
creative direction dillo day 2022
In my final year with Mayfest Productions, I lead a young and talented team of art directors, designers, and copywriters as Creative Director and Co-Director of Promotions for the organizations 50th anniversary music festival, Dillo 50: The Return of the Rodeo.
To commemorate the founding of the student-run festival (which has, in a half-century, grown to be the largest of it's kind), we looked to the beginning—Dillo Day was started by Northwestern students from Texas looking to bring a little bit of twang to the shores of Lake Michigan. The Return to the Rodeo came naturally.
a unique visual identity.
Each year, our creative team crafted a unique visual language, aligned to the festival’s yearly theme. For the Rodeo, we knew we wanted to leverage traditional western imagery (cowboys and lassos, rolling rocky landscapes, cacti, more cacti), but we didn’t want our brand to feel too…yee haw. We wanted to create something fresh and cutting edge, but not completely disconnected from the rich visual history of country-western design.
Inspired by the glow of motel vacancy signs and distant moonlit desertscapes, we create a rich, dynamic, and vibrant visual system for the 2022 festival.
engaging social content, all year long.
While the festival lasts only one day, we needed to converse with our audience all year long. We engaged with our following on traditional social channels in unique, captivating, and frequent ways. Our approach to social marketing consistently surpassed click-through targets, and surpassed engagement records set by previous festival seasons. In eight months, we increased our Instagram following by 150%.
artist announcements irl.
To announce each of the six mainstage artists, our creative team crafted six complex, multi-staged, and exciting artist announcement campaigns. Each announcement, which lasted several days, consisted of a (deeply cryptic) digital teaser, and (slightly less cryptic) OOH stunt, and one big reveal.
By withholding and carefully revealing information about the most anticipated event of the year, including the identity of our performers, we leveraged the capabilities of word-of-mouth on a college campus. We got people talking, and guessing, extending our reach far beyond what was possible through traditional social channels alone.
and it all led up to one day in may.
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the day began with a rainstorm.
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not that it mattered.
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![the wonderful Remi Wolf]()
the incredible Remi Wolf.
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only reasonable reaction.
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Cochise makes the mainstage HIS.
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check out those custom wristbands.
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yes, that is Sean Kingston.
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Tinashe put on a SHOW.
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enjoying the moment.
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Dominic Fike wearing OUR merch nbd.
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AND REMI TOO?
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the folks that made it happen :)
made possible by many, many amazing creatives. namely:
Nicole Tank, creative director, co-director of promotions / Geena Vetula, lead designer / Catherine Duncan, lead copywriter / Darya Daneshmand / Defne Deda / Alana Friedman / Grace Koplin / Andrea Bian / Lucas Sant'Anna / Jessica Vallan, video lead / Annabel Goldman / Connor Capoot / Keyanna Adams / Tyler Keim, photo lead / Justin Barbin, photographer (whose amazing work is above) / with help from many more
