Showcasing the Diverse Trajectories of Creatives to Promote a Premiere Event
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After a successful partnership in 2024, AIGA DC reached out to Teal again to be their brand partner to build momentum for DC Design Week (DCDW) 2025, a pillar of the District’s creative culture. The resulting brand was reflected across nine programs and related communications campaigns.
The theme for the year was “Unparalleled Pathways.” Through this lens, we aimed to amplify the diverse trajectories that creatives take—honoring both the individuality and common ground that defines our work. To start, we led the AIGA team through an exploratory workshop to pin down visual metaphors around this central idea.
Design through Divergence
“Unparalleled Pathways,” reflects this truth: no two designers move through the world—or their work—the same way. It is a commitment to listening inward, trusting the process, and pursuing expression that feels honest and whole.
We conveyed this through a visual system rooted in alignment, rhythm, and restraint. Rather than a chaotic depiction of “many paths,” we showed the elegance and subtlety in divergence. Lines that flow and intersect suggest progress, momentum, or pause. Intentional layering shows how varied journeys can still feel harmonic, even when they differ. The logo itself shifts and clicks into place transforming into an active vessel for the many forms creativity takes.
A Flexible and Scalable Brand System
The new brand prioritizes a simple and bold typographic approach with textures that imply movement. Blurred photography gives a sense of activation and demonstrates the creative process through motion. Grain, wheat-paste, and other hand-hewn stylistic choices show the tangibility of making. Type, form, and photography come together to create dynamic pathways through engaging layouts.
One of the main goals was to build a flexible and scalable brand system so that the DC Design Week communication team could easily apply it to a variety of promotional materials. We took great care to devise a brand guide that helped their team apply the brand on applications from in-person event signage, to all of the associated digital promotion. See how their team built on our foundation at their website and social.
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Year of Completion
2025
Teal Media is a woman-led creative agency that builds brands and websites for nonprofits, foundations, and mission-driven organizations. We have a core presence in Washington, DC and Detroit, MI.
Equimundo: Center for Masculinities and Social Justice has worked internationally and in the United States since 2011 to engage men and boys as allies in gender equality, promote healthy manhood, and prevent violence. We bring evidence to action through innovative research which in turn informs our programs and advocacy work across the world in local communities.
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