
Frankie 100
Frankie 100 and Swingin’ Frankie’s Way, The Frankie 100 Show at Harlem’s World Famous Apollo Theater, took place in New York City from May 22 to 26, 2014. The event was described as the largest swing dance event of the modern era and brought together over 2,000 dancers from 47 countries to honour the “Ambassador of swing”, Frankie Manning, and to name his birthday, May 26, as World Lindy Hop Day. Communities from around the world gathered at the event in New York and via live stream to local satellite events to celebrate the roots and origins of Lindy Hop and Big Band Swing. I worked closely with the international event planning team virtually from Toronto in the lead-up to the event, and coordinated with vendors in New York City such as printers and venues.
Ask any Lindy Hopper and they’ll tell you that the joy and energy of the dance could be felt clearly through Frankie Manning’s dazzling smile. The challenge became obvious: create iconic branding and promotional materials that would include the likeness of a beloved and famous person while evoking feelings of happiness and life, rather than death despite the fact of the man’s passing. I began by creating a vector portrait so we would have a fully scalable, resolution-independent element to work with across the campaign. Next I worked through a logo concept that highlighted Mr. Manning’s joyful expression as well as the famous “air step” that played a part in fixing his place in dance history. The parts of this mark were modular and mix-and-matchable – this was particularly useful for the breadth and type of materials that would need to reflect the brand on everything from marquee signage and apparel to watermarks and broadcast graphics.
Deliverables included:
- Custom portrait illustration
- Logo and accompanying icons and styles
- Signage (inside and outside venue, including marquee)
- Commemorative program
- T-shirts
- Digital broadcast graphics
- Social media graphics
- Consultation on website
- Lanyards, bag tags,
- Balloons
What We Did: Branding, Illustration, Print Collateral
Project Status: Launched, Printed