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Short Run
Reimagine the comix collective with a cohesive brand that pays homage to different methods of creating comics that artists identify with.
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Overview
Short Run, is a comics collective focusing on organizing and supporting comic artists throughout the Pacific Northwest who create “alternative comix and self-published, small press, and handmade books of all kinds”. They primarily focus on their annual event Short Run Comix Festival, in which they invite both new and experienced artists from all over the Pacific Northwest to create a space for discovery and inspiration. They also mentor, sponsor, and give grants to artists to grow their audience and polish their work.
Role
Solo Visual Designer
Timeline
April - June 2024
Tools
FIGMA, ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR, ADOBE PHOTOSHOP
Problem
Short Run currently has a very simple website created using WordPress, which relies on blog posts to showcase current events, news about grants, and other essential information. However, this approach leads to their website looking uninteresting compared to the captivating artwork created by the artists they support and the artists commissioned to create merchandise for their festival. Additionally, there is no consistent color scheme across their logo, website, and social media platforms. While their website is primarily black and white, their social media pages feature yellow.
Target Users
Their primary audience would be people who wish to pursue a career in art, specifically comix, or those who would like to broaden their perspectives of comic books within the US, particularly those who are underrepresented in current media. Their secondary audience would be the wider art community around the Pacific Northwest, particularly those interested in the printing styles and aesthetics of comics but not wanting to get into more mainstream appeals. This could be those interested in craft fairs, community events, and/or socializing in an inclusive environment. Some parents have children interested in comix who would be interested in the classes and programs held by Short Run as well.
Goal
To create a brand that feels cohesive and utilizes different techniques that those
Ideation
I started my ideation process by combining the current strengths and weaknesses of the brand’s design with my idea of what the brand can be into a collection of key words that broadly encompass the Short Run brand and marketing: Fun, Friendly, Pop, and Screen-printed.
These four terms were then expanded to 15 different keywords, in an attempt to specify the meaning of the current brand redesign. I focused on the terms artists, risograph, and zines from these fifteen keywords.
Initial Logo Ideations
Original Digitized Logo Ideations
Finalized Logo Design
The logo redesign aims to emulate the zine creation process, the beginning steps for any artist interested in comics and zine creatives. This is directly tied to the artists and creatives who use Short Run to showcase and gain outreach for their work, as risograph is a cheap printing method that can be replicated extremely easy. The logo is designed to be simplistic and easy to replicate, edit and play with by the creative within Short Run.
For any marketing purposes outside of the official website and social media icons, the words within the Short Run logo are allowed to be overlaid and multiplied over one another to emulate the feeling of Risograph & screen-printed artwork. These multiplied designs must use the color palette within these brand guidelines.
Mockup
User Task Flow
The main user journey on the website was expected to be that of a new artist signing up for the mailing list, which is a major feature of their current site. Currently, Short Run uses Mailchimp to manage their mailing list, but in the redesign, the emphasis was on bringing the contact form in-house to better align with the new comic-book style aesthetic.
Low Fidelity Mockups
The mailing list process has been expanded into 3 steps to provide a smoother experience for users when adding their information and selecting their areas of interest in Short Run as a collective. Additionally, the resources page has been redesigned to recommend other options for users to buy comics from local shops and to help them expand their creative skills.
High Fidelity Mockups
In the high-fidelity design, the color palette exudes a risograph vibe, employing a combination of sunflower and light teal for the headers and call-to-action buttons. Emphasizing complementary pairings for the titles using the multiply effect evokes a screen-printed aesthetic. In addition, there's a deliberate nod to comic books, the focus of Short Run, achieved through the use of heavy black lines around all buttons, hyperlinked boxes, and header buttons. The majority of the resources page is structured with a 3-column grid to authentically emulate a comic book layout.
Brand Guidelines
Takeaways
Prioritization It is crucial to always stay within scope, especially for projects with quick turnaround times like this one. Prioritizing the enhancement of the main contact form to include more interactions, or to better connect the user with the other resources available on the Short Run website, will lead to a better designed pathway for the user to follow.
Readability I dedicated significant attention to the aesthetics of the project, particularly around screen printed styles and heavy comic-styled assets. However, this resulted in the project feeling overly dense and challenging to comprehend from a distance, posing an accessibility issue. If I were to undertake this project again, I would shift my focus to improving the accessibility of the mockup, particularly regarding the colors and font sizes.
Next Steps
My top priority for this project is to continually enhance the brand’s visual identity, with a strong focus on optimizing website accessibility for all artists. I am also committed to rigorously testing the chosen user journey to proactively eliminate any potential pain points.