Collaboration with community members and MRU humanities department to create promotional materials for a local historical event at The GRAND honouring Alberta’s Sleeping Car Porters, celebrating the vibrancy of the black community in Calgary both past and present.
PARTNER MRU Humanities Department, The GRAND Theatre
SKILLS Event Branding, Promotional Product Design, Document Layout, Creative Consulting, Storytelling, Copy Editing
TOOLS Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, Printing
DATE 2024
2024 Remembering Alberta's Sleeping Car Porters at The GRAND Theatre; Event Programme (*see historical artifacts for design inspiration)
BACKGROUND
In collaboration with community members and MRU humanities department, I provided design support for the local event Remembering Alberta’s Sleeping Car Porters at The GRAND Theatre. Celebrating the vibrancy of the black community in Calgary both past and present, this gathering was held as a way to recapture the spirit of the 1945 Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) Calgary meeting. It featured distinguished speakers, songs of solidarity, and an opportunity for shared celebration. I created a diverse set of branding and promotional materials, including: event programme, posters/banners for print and digital screens, social media assets, and a branding guide for use by partners at The GRAND.
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Design Reflection: Referenced Historical Artifacts for Alberta's Sleeping Car Porters
DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS
Designing for this event meant honouring not just a piece of a local history, but the identity and spirit of the community at its centre. I worked closely not just with historical experts, but also those with deep familial roots to the sleeping car porters themselves. With them as co-creators, I helped bring an aesthetic vision to life reflecting deep local connection and storytelling. An example of this is the integration of historical and familial photos, and reimagining historical documents as inspiration for this contemporary event. From colour, to type, to layout, to photo use, each piece of design for this event was meant to contribute to creating a warm community experience and memorable night of historical reflection and celebration.
Event Promotion: Poster Featured in Digital and Print
Event Promotion: Large Banner Printing, Featured at Mount Royal University, Main Street
Event Branding and Promotion; Remembering Alberta's Sleeping Car Porters at The GRAND Theatre