We’ve been supporters of Birmingham’s Sidewalk Film Festival for a long time.
Hell, our Chief Creative Officer Ford Wiles hawked t-shirts at the very first Sidewalk back in 1999.
This year, it all came full circle as Wiles – along with President John Montgomery – led the charge for a Sidewalk rebranding project.
The mission? Well, Sidewalk is already a world-renowned, heavily lauded, prestigious festival. They didn’t need our help for that. We just had to give them a look that matched that prestige.
“This is one of the most exciting events in our city for creative people and especially for us since we have so many young filmmakers on staff,” Wiles said. “Nobody fully understands or appreciates the time, dedication, and commitment it takes to make a film except for filmmakers. So we made sure that the identity we built reflected that.”
Like many projects do, our rebranding process started with the logo.
Thankfully, Sidewalk has a unique name that gave us a lot of avenues for brainstorming. In the end, a simple concept made the cut: Taking the “walk” in Sidewalk and flipping it on its…side. (See what we did there?)
From there, the rest of the branding took shape. The process included posters, t-shirts, ads, printed schedules, and a sponsors video that you’ll be seeing before each screening.
“We wanted Sidewalk to have a look that reflects what it is: a modern film festival that young creative types want to enter,” Wiles said. “So we came up with a design that wouldn’t have to be redone next year, or for a while. Something iconic that can stand alongside other huge festivals.”
Speaking of young creative types, have we mentioned that a few of our people are Sidewalk veterans in their own right?
Both Brian Curtin and Ali Clark on our video team have had multiple films in past festivals. (The latest project Clark worked on, “County Fair, Texas”, which her husband Bradford Thomason wrote and edited, will screen Sunday morning at 11:15am at ASFA.)
Additionally, writer Jeremy Burgess will be making his debut at the festival this year with “Dead Saturday” (Saturday, 10:15am, ASFA), a short film he co-wrote and produced. And Ian Cunningham, husband to our business manager Onna Cunningham, has a short documentary in the festival called “Veterans Day Reunion” (Sunday, 1:40pm, ASFA) that captures the spirit of an event that’s very near and dear to our hearts.
Needless to say, we’re quite excited about Sidewalk. See y’all there?
