The Riverside Arts Center is a community hub that supports the Ypsilanti arts and cultural community. They provide arts education, performing arts, and visual arts programming. In January 2018, FLY Creativity Lab–– a creative experience for kids– merged with the Riverside Arts Center to create an artistic space to the surrounding Ypsilanti area. They used this opportunity to create a new identity.

The design students at Eastern Michigan University competed as part of a class project to create a brand that represented the Riverside Arts Center’s diverse and unique community. Not only was this a triumphant opportunity, but it was a way to connect with the Ypsilanti Community that was our home for 4 years while attending Eastern Michigan University. The final rebrand was released Spring 2018.

Team: Katie Meyette, Zack Belsky, Stephanie Umfleet, Jayna Mueser

Exterior

Window Vinyl and Banners were installed to create an eye-catching experience and to reflect the updated branding. The window vinyl used simple shapes that make up the new RAC logo. Horizontally across the windows spells “CREATE”, and vertically down the elevator windows spells “YPSI”. I worked closely with Ryan Molloy, a professor at Eastern Michigan University, to create a design that is inventive, extraordinary, and legible from viewers passing by on foot or car.

Logo Design

Their original logo represented the center itself, which was an outline of the building. The clients wanted to revamp their logo to show the lively artistic activities that were happening at their new creative hub.

Simple shapes and colors make up the primary letter “R” and secondary letter “A”. The colors were hand chosen to represent the exciting and inviting happenings of all ages in the creativity lab.

Fly Creativity Toolkit

The Fly Creativity Toolkit consists of 50+ cards. It was created to provide activities for students and children to complete while visiting the Riverside Arts Center. It was designed to encourage creativity, imagination and exploration in the Ypsilanti community. The illustrations portray the brand using basic shapes just as the logo, but in a more interactive and playful way. All card designs and illustrations were drawn by me.