GRL JAM — Rock n’ roll with us!
A rock n’ roller derby event to benefit Girls Rock Philly.
GRL JAM is a roller derby and concert collaboration event between Girls Rock Philly and Philly Roller Derby. Admission to the event covers the viewing of a roller derby match between the Passyunk Punks and the CheeseSkates along with performances from bands Kississippi, Moon Frogs, and La Belle Vie. All proceeds from the event benefit Girls Rock Philly.
Designing for Good
Our Class’ Initial Project Prompt
In the Spring semester of 2021, I had the opportunity to take a class called Design for the Public Good lead by Professor Kelly Holohan. We were tasked to pick an organization with a mission that aligned with an issue we felt passionate about. After choosing an org, we had to fully realize and design a fundraising event to benefit them.
This class stood out to me for a couple of reasons, one being the idea of branding for ‘good’. Designing with a level of consciousness in mind was something I hadn’t fully considered before but it’s something that I will definitely consider in the future. Having the opportunity to go to school and learn about design is such a privilege, and using my skills to benefit others is the ultimate use of that advantage.
Girls Rock Philly
Background on the Non-Profit Organization
When deciding on an organization to pick, one that resonated with me right at the start was Girls Rock Philly (GRP).
Initially, I didn’t know a lot about GRP. I had seen donation containers for them around the city or in coffee shops and they definitely spiked my interest (especially as a girl in a band). Despite my interest, I never looked into the details of the work they do before this project.
To give a general overview, Girls Rock Philly is a non-profit organization founded in 2006 in Philadelphia under the nationwide network of Girls Rock Camp Alliance. Their main goal is to “Creating liberating futures through song and joy” and they do so by hosting camps and workshops to teach others about music and instruments. The organization also emphasizes a goal of creating an inclusive and safe environment for anyone who wants to be involved. GRP’s programming began as a one-week youth summer camp but has evolved to year-round programming for participants of all ages.
GRP only hosts one Annual Supporting GRP Futures Fundraiser. As for other income events, end-of-camp concerts also act as donation occasions and they’ve recently hosted vintage t-shirt sales.
Before conceptualizing event ideas and branding of my own, I did a brand asset audit of the current GRP brand identity. The mood board above shows their logo, photography style, t-shirts, and poster design. I took the general sketchiness, colors (pinks, purples & blues), and photography into consideration when creating the brand identity for my event.
Initial Planning
Brainstorming, Mood Board, Mind Maps, & User Personas
At the start of my brainstorming, I had three fundraiser ideas: a concert, an instrument drive, and a roller-skating event. At first, I was most interested in working on creating a concert, but clearly, it was the obvious choice. I needed to find a way to go this route with a unique spin. That’s when I decided to combine the concert with the roller skating event.
Although it was a somewhat odd pairing at first, roller derby and the DIY music community of GRP to have a lot in common. Both are female-lead, focused on producing and cultivating confidence in women, and can be described with words like ‘loud’, ‘fast’, ‘shred’, etc.
After settling on the roller derby concert as my fundraiser, I moved on to creating a name. This proved to be difficult since the name needed to encapsulate both aspects of the event equally while also connecting them.
In the end, the name GRL JAM had the right vibe for this event. ‘GRL’ represents the female presence in Girls Rock Philly and Philly Roller Derby along with relating to the Riot Grrrl Punk Movement in the 90s. ‘JAM’ serves as a connection to jamming, as you would when playing an instrument, but also as a connection to the position on a derby team called a Jammer.
After deciding on a name, the focus moved to define the audience for this event. I decided on two different user personas, one being a girl of high-school age and the other being a person in their early 20s. Both have somewhat similar interests in the DIY music scene and want a chance to better connect with their community in an inclusive space.
Once the audience was defined, the next step was creating my mood board. This event is heavily inspired by Punk style and branding. I’ve always wanted to create a project with this type of approach but I’ve never had a great opportunity. GRL JAM seemed like the perfect fit due to the nature of the event, along with the event name being inspired by a punk movement.
DIY Branding
Name, Logo, and Style Tile
For the logo design, GRL JAM warranted a hand-done, informal approach reminiscent of informal drawings on the sides of notebooks and the style of the punk movement. That led me to move away from a vector-based logo, and towards a hand-drawn mark with texture. The logo went through many iterations, but settled on GRL JAM as a wordmark in addition to a lightning bolt exclamation point. The wordmark works well as its own element but the exclamation lightning bolt adds speed and loudness to the feeling of the brand. Both elements can be separated as a responsive logo as seen above.
Before settling on the final logo, many versions were created that fit the DIY aesthetic. I decided to treat these as secondary logos that could be used sparingly or in less official places. For example, variations can be used on deliverables such as stickers or bags.
After completing the logo, I moved to work on the style tile to expand the brand assets before working on anything else. It was super helpful to get an idea of what the vibe of my content would be before getting into the actual design. Though the style tile for GRL JAM has evolved immensely since the start of this project, it has helped me stay on track for my overall vision of the brand.
GRL JAM is defined by its DIY style, sketchy illustrations, small elements like stars and hearts, hand-drawn display typography, and collaged or polaroid photo treatments. In the illustrative content, there are four categories of elements: music, roller-skating, aggressive, and decorative. The music and roller derby elements were the obvious choices and the aggressive and decorative pieces added to the vibe of the event.
Jam With Us
Website & Social Media
The first deliverable I worked on was the website. The site includes long scrolling pages designed to feel like a large poster with all the content a user would need. Each section of the site is divided by a different color background with a shadow separating each one. The entire page is covered in photos and illustrations to keep busy and chaotic energy. Important type and block text are emphasized by being placed on top of cut paper of another color. Purchasing of tickets and merchandise is linked to a separate Eventbrite and Shop pages.
If you’re interested in walking through a clickable version of the website on your own, I’ve also linked it here.
For Instagram, the strategy was to treat the main posts differently than the stories. In the posts, there’s only an emphasis on one thing, whether it’s a typography element or a photo. Each post on the main page serves as an introduction of information about the event, but mainly as a call to action, asking viewers to purchase tickets through the link in the bio.
With the stories, I made an effort to add a lot of details and content, while also connecting each slide to the other by bridging elements. The purpose of the stories was to introduce bios about people in the bands along with players from the derby teams. The stories about musicians are featured in purple and blue while the athletes are in green and blue, just to add a color distinction between the two.
Grab Your Gear
Other Deliverables
As for physical deliverables, we were challenged to create a ticketing system along with a minimum of three other items. For my ticketing system, I created physical printed tickets that would be sent to patrons before the day of the event or given in person. There is both an Under-18 ticket for $10 and an Adult Ticket for $20. They would serve as a physical memory from the event, especially if someone didn’t have enough money to purchase merchandise.
Backstage passes were created for the people participating in the event. This would help to distinguish participants from patrons while also giving them a keepsake as thanks for their support.
As for general merchandise, products were created that were both relevant and true to the brand. In the end, the list included tote bags, die-cut stickers, guitar picks, metal pins, a CD mixtape and a t-shirt.
Rock n Roll
Conclusion & Takeaways
What a project! Though intense at times, I learned a tremendous amount about fully conceptualizing and branding an event from start to finish. This was a dream concept and project for me and I’m so glad I had the chance to do it.
I can’t thank my professor, Kelly Holohan, enough for her support and for creating a wonderful class environment where I felt super comfortable sharing my work.
Credits:
Designer: Margot Whipps
Professor: Kelly Holohan, Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Temple University
