Client work
Foxtail
Film Festival.
As Creative Director I designed the pieces a festival-goer meets from start to finish: the program in their hands, the map that gets them parked, the posts that bring them in and the bumpers on the big screen between films.
A student-run festival at the Normal Theater.
Foxtail is a film festival put on by Illinois State students, with screenings, workshops and Q&As at the Normal Theater. It showcases ISU student films alongside high school and college shorts from across the country, ending with an awards ceremony.
As Creative Director I worked with the festival's other divisions to make assets that served every team, all built on Foxtail's orange, cream and black identity and a collage style of halftone photos, torn paper and cut-outs of the Normal Theater.
- Motion graphics
- Event branding
- Editorial layout
- Wayfinding
- Illustration
- Social media
Next up, on the big screen.
Bumpers played in the Normal Theater between screening blocks, telling the audience what's coming next and which films are in it. Halftone stills from the films sit behind a torn-paper edge, with the festival's collage pieces along the bottom.
A joint collaboration: I designed the bumper graphics, and the festival's technician committee rendered them into video.
Three days, one fold.
The festival program: a trifold with the full schedule from Thursday, April 23 to Saturday, April 25. Each event gets a time, a location and a short description, with film stills and guest photos to break up the text, a founding note and accommodation details.
"Where do I park?" Answered.
A map of Uptown Normal that answers the question every guest asks. It marks the Normal Theater, the parking decks and nineteen nearby places to eat, with parking prices and a QR code to the Town of Normal's parking page. The festival posted it on Instagram and credited me.
Laurels, grown from foxtails.
I helped redesign the festival's laurels for 2026. Instead of generic leaves, each side is built from the chevron foxtail stalks in Foxtail's logo, around the festival's own wordmark, so a laurel on a winning film's poster or trailer still reads as Foxtail. One system covers the Official Selection and six awards across college and high school categories, and it stretched to the Shorts Spotlight and to the festival's own posts promoting each screening.
Six directions, one festival.
Before settling on a poster I explored six directions with the same headline, dates and type: photography of real foxtail grass, the logo as a window, bold geometric film reels, the award laurels, an oversized 2026, and the halftone collage that went on to shape the bumpers and the Facebook banner.
The collage, everywhere online.
The cover banner I designed for the festival's Facebook page frames the logo with collage cut-outs: the Normal Theater sign, a shouting mouth, a film camera and a downtown building. For Illinois State's Birds Give Back campaign, I designed a testimonial post that pairs an alumna's memory of the first festival with the theater's marquee.