25th Anniversary
/ 2020 Vision Weekend
Art Direction, Branding, Graphic Design
Looking Ahead & Celebrating the Past
River Valley is a multi-site church with eight physical locations across the Twin Cities, as well as a growing community online. Before the global pandemic, they were planning a 25th anniversary celebration event to be held at the Minneapolis Convention Center at the end of the summer—an event where their whole congregation across all locations and missionaries they support would come together to celebrate all that was done in the past 25 years, as well as look forward to the future.
This year, River Valley had a verse that anchored their vision. It was Acts 20:20—“You know how I’ve taught you in public meetings and in your homes, and that I’ve not held anything back from you that would help you grow”. Inspired from this, their vision for the year became Hold Nothing Back.
The first weekend of 2020 was called ‘Vision Weekend’, where River Valley’s Lead Pastor would inspire, motivate and let the congregation in on what River Valley’s goals and aspirations were for the 2020 year. In addition, the brand for the 25th Anniversary Celebration would be revealed that same weekend.
Art Direction
Since there was a lot of information to be communicated through the deliverables, I focused the brand on tasteful yet interesting typography choices. Inspired by combinations of serif and sans-serif, and I chose a classic (Helvetica Neue) and calligraphy-inspired serif (Ogg from Sharp Type). I gave the brand a monochromatic color palette, with the intent that pops of color could be added in physical means at the actual event—through installation design, signage, and merchandise.
Deliverables
Since River Valley was focusing on two important matters on the same weekend (2020 Vision Weekend and the 25th Anniversary), I needed to create two looks that were distinct enough from each other, yet cohesive enough given that they are related to an extent.
For the design of the 25th Anniversary deliverables, I used a darker color palette and used the serif (Ogg) as the primary font. For the design of the 2020 Vision Weekend deliverables, I used a lighter color palette and used the sans serif (Helvetica Neue) as the primary font. To unify both designs, I created custom type for the numbers ‘25’ and ‘2020’ and used similar layout structures for each.
Digital
25th Anniversary Invitation
—Seat Drop
25th Anniversary Invitation
—Mailer
2020 Vision Weekend
—Handout
Credits
Client River Valley Church
Art Direction, Branding & Graphic Design Kailey Schmitt