Art After Dark Posters

As the designer for Bakersfield Museum of Art (BMoA) it was my honor and privilege to design the visual identity for each iteration of the museum’s after-hours art experience events, Art After Dark. Each year, was a new opportunity to create a cohesive series and finding creativity within the constraints of the established brand.

All work is property of and shared with permission from Bakersfield Museum of Art.

A Closer Look

A new year and a new event series meant a new opportunity to draw people in and challenge myself as a designer. By establishing a template structure for the year and working within those constraints I made cohesive collections out of very unique and often disparate events.

What is Art After Dark?

BMoA’s “After-Hours Art Experience” event series were events aimed for the 21+ art lover who couldn’t make it to the museum during the day. A combination of networking event and community enrichment with (usually) a local beloved bar/restaurant hosting drinks and an interactive art project run by museum educators that highlighted one or several of the current exhibitions.

How I was involved

As the museum’s graphic designer and marketing assistant, I worked with the Curator of Collections and Exhibitions and our Event Coordinator to bring visuals to the event working within the established brand. As an artist and fomer educator, I also consulted on the art projects and materials.

2021 Series

In my second year as graphic designer at BMoA, I collaborated with the Curator of Collections and Exhibitions to execute her clear voice and message.

2023 Series

This series was a light re-imagining of the brand. With a new curator in charge we wanted to show that the event was changing. We decided to make the poster read more like a large flyer with a new call out, to commuincate very quickly what one can experience at Art After Dark.

It was the year we introduced “Create. Drink. Enjoy” as a tagline, narrowing down what “an after-hours experience” meant in order to draw in a wider audience that could be intimidated the combination of art museum + experience.

2024 Series

My goal every year was to make the posters look like a clear and intentional collection. This series was unique for the introduction of event photos coupled with illustration.

I divided the poster template into two columns, largely the event sponsors on the left, and event information on the right. I kept the QR code near the sponsors so that the viewer would have to see their names as they went to get more inofrmation.

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2025 Series

This collection merged the last two years’ with the size of the logo and body of text of 2024 but with the orientation inspired by 2023.

Poster Gallery