Anime Oregon - A Springtime Celebration of Anime, Cosplay, and Japanese Culture
Project Introduction
Anime Oregon is a project that spawned from my love of both attending and selling my work at anime conventions in the PNW. Most conventions in the Oregon and Washington areas usually take place in late summer and go through the end of winter. However, there are very few conventions that take places throughout the spring-mid summer in the Pacific Northwest. This inspired me to create the branding, merchandise, and event collateral for a new anime convention that would fill this empty gap in the month of May. It’s intended to be an event that doesn’t just celebrate Japanese culture, but that captures the adventurous Oregonian spirit along with it.
Sketching and Concepting
With the large scale nature of this project in, I began by sketching some logo and mascot concepts for the event. Mascots are the face of most conventions, and often become the main form of promotion and merchandise for theses sorts of events. Initially, I created concepts for both male and female mascots, and ultimately chose a female mascot after selecting the event’s brand colors.
When it came to choosing colors, I considered what would capture the Japanese style in combination with a color that would embrace the natural beauty of Oregon. Green was the immediate choice to present the natural tones of Oregon, and pink was chosen to add a saturated pop of color that embodies the more “kawaii” anime oriented colors palettes and trends. Rather than using a harsh black, I selected a dark mulberry purple, a very pale off-white, and the brand colors were solidified.
By sharp contrast, the logo should be clean, simple, and legible across many sizes and scales. This logo shouldn’t be too sharp and formal, but have a softness and playfulness to it inspired by the logos of similar events as well as anime tv show logos.
Logo
Meet The Mascot, Satsuki Chan!
Creating the mascot for this project was a fun challenge! With this being an Oregon centered event, I was tasked with creating a mascot that was cute and marketable as a mascot, but that captured the typical Oregonian who would be attending this event.
I started by giving the mascot a personality profile: They’re a big outdoors person, and love hiking and athletic activities. They also love cats, coffee, concerts, thrifting, and being in nature.
Eventually, this resulted in choosing a female mascot with a casual, sporty aesthetic showing off the event’s brand colors. Her name is Satsuki-Chan, whose name literally means “Month of May” in Japanese. She’s fun, she’s colorful, she’s cute. She captures everything needed for an anime convention’s mascot!
Merchandise & Promotional Pieces
Now that I had the mascot for the event and all of the branding, I began developing merchandise and promotional products for the event. For this phase of the project, I created lanyards for different attendees based on the tickets they purchased, lanyards for the vendors, t-shirts, and attire for staff to wear during the event. This allowed me to bring in other brand elements, such as the halftone texture, the gradient, and the drop shadow effects across all branding elements.
Signage & Environmental Graphics
Now Another large part of this project was creating all of the graphics and signage for the event, including directional signs, banners, maps, and schedule/informational graphics to be placed within the Oregon Convention Center.
Large Scale/Event Pieces
Finally, this project concluded with the creation of large scale graphics the event, such as a custom tablecloth and booth display, entryway pieces, and graphics for the cosplay and lip sync competition stage. This gives the convention a completely custom and unique touch that showcases their dedication and passion for Japanese culture, anime, and creating special experiences to anyone who attends or volunteers at this convention.
Find, Follow, or Contact Me
email: info@abigaillynn.art
You can find me @abigaillynnarts on the following social media / ecommerce platforms