TIMELINE

6 weeks

TOOLS

Notion
Procreate
Illustrator
Photoshop
After Effects

ROLES

User Research
Concept Development
Brand Development
Copy Writing
Content Strategy

TEAM

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National Film Festival for Talented Youth (NFFTY) is the world’s largest film festival for emerging directors. Each year the festival showcases films by directors 24 and under. NFFTY supports young filmmakers by offering professional level workshops year-round. In addition NFFTY.org hosts filmmaker resources, tips, news and information.

RESEARCH

The NFFTY narrative is one of progressivism. The backbone of NFFTY’s program structure and belief system is equity. This is a key part of NFFTY’s narrative. We fight against systems of oppression, and strive for inclusivity by creating equitable access to our programs. In order to be equitable we have to recognize where there is inequity. That’s why NFFTY works to elevate work by women, BIPOC and LGBTQIA+, giving them a platform to share their unique perspectives.

THE PROBLEM

Each year, NFFTY has a festival design, however outside of festival design they were lacking cohesion in their brand identity. NFFTY desired a brand that wa strong enough to carry the organization throughout the year in all advertising and marketing materials, but also something that can serve as a background for the yearly festival themes and while keeping the primary brand visible and recognizable.

NFFTY’s primary audience is Gen Z and Gen Alpha, with the main goal being to educate inspire and provide a platform for youth to showcase their films. From a secondary perspective, NFFTY seeks to reach parents and educators of youth, providing a pathway for youth into NFFTY’s programs. NFFTY also seeks to reach donors and sponsors. For this reason it was important for NFFTY to not come across too youthful, while also communicating that distinction. 

NFFTY’S VISION

A thriving and equitable film industry that uplifts youth.

DESIGN SYSTEM

NFFTY’s full brand guidelines can be found here︎.

This design system includes a refresh on the NFFTY logo, as well as a new color palette, primary and secondary typefaces, and secondary graphics to be used across all NFFTY collatoral. The goal was for any graphic elements to be similistic in nature so that any festival design overlapping could incorporate the simplistic shapes or textures. A suit of textures reminicent of old film was incorporated, again try to avoid any destinct graphics that could pigeonhole future festival designers. The palette incorporatess a combination of vibrant and cool tones and overall leans into the brand attribute of boldness. Distinct amongst the brand indentity is the series of badges, designed to identify secondary programs within the overarching NFFTY brand. 

Some GIFS were simplistic and had specific use cases while others were more geared towards general branding.

USE CASES 

NFFTY’s brand identity was applied across a wide variety of digital assets including advertisements, social collateral and templates and web design. 

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