At the beginning of every year, the HMB Beautification Committee begins working with a designer (in this case, me!) for the Pumpkin Festival Poster. The event logo comes to live from whatever is present in the finalized poster. For my design, I hand-drew and illustrated dozens of "doodles" that I believe represent the spirit of the event. From literal things like the Main and Kelly St. sign where I'd meet my friends, or the Gourdy event mascot, to general coastal and fall imagery, my doodles are meant to represent fall on the Coastside as well as the event itself. Lastly, the fonts present in the logo and throughout the poster were hand drawn or hand traced to create a similar look and feel to the doodles.
The final primary logo takes the overall look from the poster, and simplifies it slightly to just be the pumpkin. Not every doodle is present, but I kept both as many as I could and all that I thought were most relevant to the event and it's spirit. Logos with and without the date, as well as with and without primary sponsor Safeway are always created.
Secondary text-based logo marks were also created. The logo needed to exist with and without the pumpkin "shape" encasing it all. These text-heavy marks were used primary for both wine and beer stein glassware, which are both sold at Pumpkin Festival to raise funds for the HMB Beautification Committee and The HMB Chamber of Commerce.
PFest apparel sales start at Weigh-Off, the Monday before PFest.
Local business owner Josh Warshauer presenting the Weigh-Off Ring in his Orange Pfest Hoodie.
A Weigh-Off attendant takes home a blue PFest shirt.
Creating the apparel was arguably the most challenging AND most rewarding part of this project. All apparel is screen-printed, so reducing color to save costs is the name of the game. I was able to create a 6-color version of the logo for the back. Then to further reduce costs: I pitched the concept of a medium toned full set. No white shirts, no black sweatshirts... all items are a similar medium tone in orange, blue, and grey, and artwork can live on all pieces without color swapping and color changing. Lastly, the front artwork is single color to reduce costs, and plays of the slang term "P-Fest", a name that locals have been using for as long as I can remember. The front design is also loosely inspired by "I Heart SF" or "I Heart NY" tourist shirts.
All of the merch! I designed and produced hats with three dimensional embroidery, pins, and stickers too.
Glassware for both beer and wine sales were made with single color versions of the text-based logo. Sales of this glassware benefits local Half Moon Bay nonprofits who volunteer during the event.
I was hired by the organizers of Pumpkin Festival to not capture professional photography throughout the event, but also to post on the fly! This is a service that I LOVE to offer to my clients: live posting during your event to build hype. All content is shot with my iphone 15 and posted during the event itself. Still posts were required for this event, but I had so much food capturing parade content that I ended editing and posting a reel as well. View count reached 11.2k organically with no boosting.
I was hired as the professional photographer for the event, so I was able to document everything from the parade and costume contest to food, sponsors, and other fun activities throughout the weekend.
I helped create a variety of ads, both digitally and in print, for Bay Area news agencies to share news about the 2024 Pumpkin Festival. So many layouts, all different sizes!
I also created a variety of supporting print collateral for the event. One example of print collateral would be the brochure that gets handed out to attendants.
I designed and created the official Wine Label of Pumpkin Festival. I get to do this each year for Half Moon Bay Winery, another client that I work with. But this year was special because I got to use my own branding for the label! I also photographed the official press shots for this wine. I typically do this at my favorite pumpkin patch: Farmer John's Pumpkin Farm. The perfect backdrop for this product!