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Miami International Film Festival Banner

MIAMI INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

MIAMI, FLORIDA

 

Designing for Miami's Preeminent International Film Festival.

 

On Friday evening February 3rd1984, film lovers filled Miami's Gusman Cultural Center for opening night of the first Miami International Film Festival. Downtown lit up for the gala premiere of Louis Malle's film Crackers with star Wally Shawn in attendance. Twenty-seven films from around the world were shown for the next nine days—  and today, the festival continues to premiere and showcase the finest in world cinema for South Florida audiences. During the early 2000's our founder and principal Chris Rogers served as the festival's artistic director, and was a member of the festival's organizing committee. During these years we designed all of the creative content for the festival, and help grow the brand's recognition from a local gem to a festival of international acclaim.

 

Miami International Film Festival Logo
Miami Film Festival 2001 Poster
Miami Film Festival 2001 Banners
Miami Film Festival 2001 Press Kit
Miami Film Festival 2001 Official Vehicle Graphics

CREATIVE PLANNING

Each year the festival hosts dozens of films, events and seminars and our biggest challenge was managing the large volume of festival content and creatively delivering it across a wide variety of media. Due to the complexities and the confidential nature of the film selection process, much of our work needed to be produced within a very short window of time. Designing and producing both creative and accurate content required lots of advance planning and timely collaboration with festival organizers and staff. We designed every bit of collateral that was visible to the public including advertising in local and national publications, the festival poster, program books, media kits for press and industry members, sponsor packages, ticket order forms, invitations to events and galas, awards and ballots, a daily festival newsletter, tickets and credentials, festival merchandise, street banners, official vehicle graphics, and the festival website.

Miami Film Festival Before Night Falls Invitation
Miami Film Festival Opening Night Invitation
Miami Film Festival Opening Night Reception Invitation
Miami Film Festival Closing Night Invitation

THE VALUE OF PRINT

During our tenure with the festival, the age of the internet was just beginning and the printed page was still the primary source of information for festival attendees. The two most valuable resources were the festival program and the daily newspaper advertisements which provided detailed information about the featured films, seminars and festival events. We re-designed the festival programs into a larger format, and limited the color signatures throughout the book to reduce the unit cost—using the savings to produce more programs and increase their local distribution. Full page ads in the local newspapers heralded the festival's arrival and provided detailed synopsis of each film. Smaller daily ads featured details about each day's events, and up-to-date information about appearances by featured directors and actors. In later years we designed a daily newsletter that was widely distributed throughout the festival venues and Miami community that provided expanded information on daily events including interviews with featured film's writers, directors and producers. All pieces were designed to compliment each other in both content and  visuals, and combined created an efficient and effective—and attractively branded—system of information distribution.

Miami Film Festival 2001 Festival Program
Miami Film Festival 2001 Festival Badges
Miami Film Festival 2001 Festival Advertising
Miami Film Festival 2001 Festival Merchandise
Miami Film Festival 2001 Festival Dailies

FILM FESTIVAL WEBSITE

We began our involvement with the festival by designing and creating it's first website. The year was 1996, and the internet for most people was still a relatively new phenomenon—evidenced by the fact that on the date of the website's initial launch there were only 15 other film festival sites on the entire world wide web. The first sites that we designed were quite rudimentary by today's standard, but they pushed the limits of the available technology of the time. The highly visual graphics of the early sites were experimental in nature, and were designed to stand out in a crowd of mostly text based web pages that was typical of the late 90's. Most festival attendees still relied on traditional print media as their source of information since home computers were still a novelty and websites had not yet infiltrated the public conscious. But as the internet rapidly grew in popularity, more and more users started to seek out websites as a  source of information. Following the trends, we evolved the site each year into a more content driven experience—providing visitors with detailed information about the festival's films, stars, tickets, events, seminars, and history. The 'always on' internet became an important resource, and the festival's website emerged as a valuable tool for promoting the Miami Film Festival to a global audience and solidifying its reputation as one of the most important film festivals in the world.

Miami Film Festival 1997 Festival Website
Miami Film Festival 1998 Festival Website
Miami Film Festival 1999 Festival Website
Miami Film Festival 2000 Festival Website

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© 2020 YAZI. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Miami International Film Festival Banner
Miami International Film Festival Logo
Miami Film Festival 2001 Poster
Miami Film Festival 2001 Banners
Miami Film Festival 2001 Press Kit
Miami Film Festival 2001 Official Vehicle Graphics
Miami Film Festival Before Night Falls Invitation
Miami Film Festival Opening Night Invitation
Miami Film Festival Closing Night Invitation
Miami Film Festival Opening Night Reception Invitation
Miami Film Festival 2001 Festival Program
Miami Film Festival 2001 Festival Badges
Miami Film Festival 2001 Festival Advertising
Miami Film Festival 2001 Festival Merchandise
Miami Film Festival 2001 Festival Dailies

We began our involvement with the festival by designing and creating it's first website. The year was 1996, and the internet for most people was still a relatively new phenomenon—evidenced by the fact that on the date of the website's initial launch there were only 15 other film festival sites on the entire world wide web. The first sites that we designed were quite rudimentary by today's standard, but they pushed the limits of the available technology of the time. The graphics of the early sites were experimental in nature, and were designed to stand out in a crowd of mostly text based web pages that was typical of the late 90's. Most festival attendees still relied on traditional print media as their source of information since home computers were still a novelty and websites had not yet infiltrated the public conscious. But as the internet rapidly grew in popularity, more and more users started to seek out websites as a  source of information. Following the trends, we evolved the site each year into a more content driven experience—providing visitors with detailed information about the festival's films, stars, tickets, events, seminars, and history. The 'always on' internet became an important resource, and the festival's website emerged as a valuable tool for promoting the Miami Film Festival to a global audience and solidifying its reputation as one of the most important film festivals in the world.

Miami Film Festival 1997 Festival Website
Miami Film Festival 1998 Festival Website
Miami Film Festival 1999 Festival Website
Miami Film Festival 2000 Festival Website