Staying Power

Client Background

Staying Power was an outdoor art exhibition and program series in the Fairhill-Hartranft neighborhood of Philadelphia. Staying Power asked artists, residents of the neighborhood, and visitors: What is your staying power in this neighborhood? What is your staying power in a city and world that are rapidly changing? Staying Power sought to understand, amplify, and invest in the staying power of Fairhill-Hartranft’s neighborhood residents. Hosted by The Village of Arts and Humanities and curated with Monument Lab, Staying Power featured prototype monuments by artists Sadie Barnette, Black Quantum Futurism, Courtney Bowles and Mark Strandquist, Ebony G. Patterson, and Deborah Willis that each respond to the curatorial prompts of the project. The resulting exhibition included monumental outdoor sculpture, photographic installations, storefront activations, and research and performance engagements, presented alongside The Village’s existing public collection of legacy artworks on the Germantown Avenue corridor of North Central Philadelphia.

Branding Identity

Co-Organizer’s Monument Lab and The Village of Arts commissioned Say Less to create a brand for their new art exhibition. The goal was to create a fun visual identity system that represented the idea of Staying Power, the artists being featured, and the community where the art exhibition was showcased. The goal was to create a logo that felt strong and substantial. Say Less created a custom type lockup by using combined contrasting strokes/weights of the the letters that provided variation thus creating visual dynamism. Say Less used color-blocking throughout the design system to create bold and contrasting moments between the type & imagery. Say Less designed every touchpoint to make this exhibition feel cohesive and highlight the message.

Deliverables for this project included: The event poster design, exhibition signage, social media posts and templates, merchandise, newspaper design and web design.

Color Palette

Type Palette

Newspaper Design

Say Less was also tasked to design (2) 12 page newspapers to inform the neighborhood about the exhibition and give more insight to the artists featured. This additional piece of collateral helped bring the branding to life.

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