Arts Unplugged is a recurring series of events at Cornell University where the the College of Arts & Sciences opens up to the university and the wider community and celebrates cultural or scientific findings in a way that is accessible to everyone. 

Given that one of the brand elements of the College of Arts & Sciences is the rectangle over the image, I connected the events visually by "breaking" the rectangle with shapes that hint at the topic or type of event it promotes. 

Wynton Marsalis' talk and performance at Cornell, November 2021. For these events I was inspired by Marsalis' charismatic stage presence and facial features. The first poster featured his first name "wynton" hand-written with lusciously oval curves and the second his last name "marsalis." The two would often be displayed side by side and so the two hand-written words connected them visually. 

However, the organizers, insisted that the first poster also feature his face/photograph, a request that I considered unfounded given the subject matter of the talk. However, I made a compromise by re-writing "wynton" so as to incorporate a hand-drawn portrait of him, where his trumpet would represent the bar in "t" and his head replacing the letter "o."

The Jazz trumpeter in front of the digital slide used to promote event across campus. The slide was also used as a background to his talk. 

While I didn't design the inside of the performance program, I did design the front and back covers as seen above and below.

The "wynton" drawing.

Cornell According to Sound was a live audio show that represented Cornell University entirely through sound as recorded by NPR's Chris Hoff and Sam Harnett who run the podcast The World According to Sound. 

The promotional materials included a poster, a quarter card, digital slides and media cards, as well as a large scale vinyl mural.

For the day of the event, I created a program featuring a map showing the various locations where the artists created the recordings. 

Consistent yet unique with the Arts Unplugged look, I created Cornell's skyline as a sound wave in the lower part of the rectangle. The color palette is inspired by the World According to Sound brand.  

Odyssey in Ithaca was a full day, live, community-reading of the Odyssey.

Above are the bookmarks we used both as promotional tools and as keepsakes from the event.

For the event we framed the stage with an oversized version of the poster on one side and on the other, the scheduled times for each chapter.

The poster featured the waters of the Cayuga lake, on the shores of which Ithaca, NY, and Cornell University is located; the ruins of a Greek temple: and the silhouette of a woman at a microphone, reminiscent of slam poetry and public storytelling. 

Behind the readers and stage, the large screen showed either the promotional slide or the name of the chapter being read at that moment.