BRIEF
Design the theme and look and feel for marketing collateral for this year’s Casa Moderna Expo event, a three day, high-end, home improvement exhibition showcasing the latest trends and innovations in home renovation and interior design.
APPROACH
Audience research revealed that they’re looking for inspiration to add style and personality to their living spaces, make their living space more comfortable or make their home more environmentally friendly. Design aesthetic and sustainability are high on their agenda.
The concept theme Art d’Eco plays on the name of the Art Deco movement, creating greater relevance with the audience by highlighting the coincidental ‘eco’ aspect of the name and making Art Deco - Art d’Eco. Designed to appeal to the target audience’s appreciation of art and the environment, it’s a fusion of an influential era of design and ecological consideration.
Art Deco design is a marriage of craftsmanship + rich materials. Delving into the era searching for references that could be reinterpreted in a contemporary way, in line with the contemporary nature of the exhibition, I discovered that patterned wallpaper was incredibly popular in this era with leaves and greenery featuring as motifs either in geometric recreations or organic illustrations. Gold and gold tone was another defining feature of the era, evoking a sense of opulence and luxury.
EXECUTION
As the theme of the event is centred around sustainability and the ecological aspect of home renovation, it felt right to incorporate an aspect of nature into the design. The greenery element was created by hand using a selection leaves in a variety of shapes and shades. I had hoped to source the greenery locally, however, was unable to get the quality and variety required to make a QUALITY, visually interesting greenery wall WITH REAL LOCAL FOLIAGE, so I had to cheat and order fake leaves to achieve the desired result. The wall was assembled on grass, using the sponginess of this to secure the leaves in places so they could BE photographed. Gold accent leaves were added to complement the gold tone type.
Art d’Eco, THE EXHIBITION'S THEME is highlighted front and centre in the design AS a TYPE LOCK UP. Standing Room Only, a chunky, Art Deco classic font with a bit of an edge, commands attention in textured gold. To land the concept, the d’ has been isolated to really emphasise it, as this is key to it being read as Art d’Eco Vs Art Deco.
To align with the contemporary nature of the exhibition, the design needed to feel equally contemporary, which would be achieved through space and alignment. Rather than using the greenery piece as a background, which would overpower everything else, select segments of it are revealed as the ART and ECO letters appear to slide across the page in opposite directions.
Key event information is communicated in Bebas Neue, a popular sans serif with clean lines and a contemporary feel, contrasting with the more artistic Standing Room Only, not only through its shape but its size. Fjalla One is the font seen in sentence case for the short excerpt of body copy that talks about what the event entails. Another sans serif font to align with the contemporary nature of the exhibition.
A light grey warms up the starkness of the background, a nod to recent interior design trends where grey has enjoyed its moment in the spotlight.
