10.06.09

Bart Weiss, director of the Dallas Video Festival, has a guest post up at KERA’s Art & Seek blog about choosing this year’s festival poster. He touches on the complex way “VideoFest” strives to create a unique, interesting and compelling identity — and a different one every year.

When you think back on each year’s film festival, you (of course) think of the innovative and talented filmmakers that brought their art to the screen.

But, you also think of the visuals of the festival itself. The imagery (posters, T-shirts, intro video…) make up a critical part of each year’s identity, and must convey the many new themes, ideas and emotions.

An excerpt:

Last year and this year, we’ve been lucky enough to have SullivanPerkins do our design work. Usually I am presented with four or five ideas; this year there were well more than that. The submissions from each year were great. For about a week and a half, I carry them around wherever I go and ask everyone which they like best. It is one of the hardest decisions of the year. But the result is magnificent. Last year’s was particularly tough, because the image had to convey that the festival was in two parts: one part the classic festival and the other a selection of video art called “the program” that we screened in the months heading up to the festival weekend.

Art & Seek also provides links to last year’s design, all of this year’s choices, and the design picked to represent VideoFest this year.