The Hollywood Fringe Festival is an annual celebration of emerging arts held in Hollywood, California. I became involved with the Festival at the very beginning and created the branding for it, and also designed the visual look of pretty much everything involved, including the logo, website, promotional materials, and stationery.

One of the main things that I wanted to emphasize in its look was the craft behind art. Almost all the design incorporates a hand-made or hand-drawn element. The logo, for example, is an actual stencil that I cut out and used in spray painting. We wanted to lean towards an edgier, street-art look with the logo, but instead of a spray-painted logo with splatters and drips, I thought it would be more interesting and visually arresting to show the actual stencil. The craft behind the art.

The Fringe Freaks are the mascots of the Hollywood Fringe Festival. The first day I sat down to sketch some visual ideas, while thinking about the idea of the fringe, the fringe of society, and all meanings fringe-like, I scribbled down these weird guys. They really caught on, and now you can find them on the website, all over the promotional materials, and even walking down Hollywood Boulevard now. Here's the original sketch that started it all: