Cleveland—A breaking poster campaign for Kent State University’s WKSU Folk Festival, Nov. 5–14, is based on old-style letterforms arranged in the shape of a banjo, America’s only home-invented musical instrument. A new Web site, kentstatefolkfestival.org , the festival’s first year-round online presence, will also be introduced. WKSU’s live and streaming audiences make it the world’s most widely listened-to folk programming. The campaign is by advertising agency Marcus Thomas, Cleveland.

The poster’s type-based design is reminiscent of ’50s era coffee house folk concert posters, which were often composed from woodcut letters. In the current version, digital type was reproduced via silk-screen, in a contemporary, 3-color palette of blue, green and brown. Art director and backyard screen printer Ryan Wolfe notes, “Compared to digital, silk screening gave us a more organic blend of color layers, which befit this handcrafted music.”

Besides the 12” x 18” posters, the banjo motif will appear on concert programs, direct mail, tickets and badges.

The new Web site will feature an online “bulletin board” with historical information on this year’s festival artists, which include The Del McCoury Band (bluegrass; performing 50 years); Greg Brown and (one-time Jefferson Airplane guitarist) Jorma Kaukonen; and Edwin Colón Zayas and the Masters of Puerto Rican Roots Music.

Creative credits: Marcus Thomas ECD Joanne Kim, AD/illustrator/screen printer Ryan Wolfe, copywriter Kevin Delsanter, screen printer TJ Prochaska, and online developer Nick Zwinggi. Online photography is by Russell Lee, Cleveland.

Marcus Thomas LLC is an integrated marketing communications agency with offices in Cleveland and Youngstown, Ohio, and billings of $86 million from clients including Nestlé, MTD Products (lawn tractors), Diebold, Johnsonite, Tarkett, Swagelok, Alcoa Wheel Products, and the Ohio Lottery, among others. www.marcusthomasllc.com

Submitted by: Dan Barron of Conroy Barron Public Relations

This entry was posted on Friday, November 6th, 2009 at 8:04 am and is filed under Advertising, Graphic Design, Typography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.