Mainframe Studios is one of the largest non-profit art studios in the nation, providing permanent, affordable workspaces for hundreds of artists in Des Moines. It is known for its creative community and for its building, whose exterior is painted in bold, colorful geometric shapes.
The studio needed a poster for First Friday, a monthly open house where locals tour the building and see the artists’ work. The building is the studio’s most recognizable asset, so the poster had to capture its painted exterior without simply using a photograph of it.
I started by studying the exterior: its geometric patterns, the angles where the shapes meet, and its bold color palette. I abstracted those shapes into a system and used it to build the letterforms of a custom display typeface. The poster is set in that typeface, so the building comes through in the lettering itself.
The finished poster carries the studio’s physical identity into print. It was displayed in the Anderson Gallery and won an award at the 52nd Annual Juried Student Exhibition. I also mocked up how the typeface could carry over to merchandise.
Tour announcement artwork for Instagram