LONG BEACH PRIDE
YEAR: 2022
CLIENT: LONG BEACH PRIDE
LOCATION: LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA
ROLE: creative director
AGency: cogs & marvel
COLLABORATOR: Mallery Robinson
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CHALLENGE
Long Beach Pride were looking for an agency to uplevel their pride festival and produce their event in 2022 from logistics to creative. In the pitch, we proposed an added experiential journey to inspire, engage, and educate the entire community—made with love.
THE SOLUTION
We reimagined and produced Long Beach Pride with a dynamic visual identity and engaging, interactive immersive spaces, including bespoke geodesic domes with cultural activations, world-class Grammy-nominated talent on two stages, family activity zones, and 100+ exhibitor slots.
Taking inspiration from the chakras and their symbolic energy centers, we designed an open plan series of geodesic domes with related content in each: spirituality, awareness, communication, love, wisdom, sexuality and trust.
The brief asked for the entry point of the event to be joyful, dynamic, and meaningful. We created the tagline, “We All Have Stories, and Every Voice Matters,” which inspired the design language and branding for the show. We took a deconstructed approach with the pride flag colors and developed a graphic and playful language using triangles and a grid. We took a sustainable approach to the built elements, developing a modular and colorful frame system that could be broken down and used other events.
TRANSCENDENCE DOME
Created in collaboration with trans rights activist icon Mallery Robinson, this dome was part museum, part action station, telling the story of trans women’s fight for equality and empowering visitors to help continue the fight.
The Voices Wall let anyone leave messages of love and support for the community, while a postcard writing campaign sent nearly a thousand custom designed, handwritten messages to lawmakers in states passing anti-trans legislation.
A graphical history of trans women who pioneered trans civil rights told underrepresented stories, and a video station played Trans in Trumpland, bridging historical and current-day struggles.
DRAG MAKEUP DOME
In an ode to the bold aesthetic tradition of drag, we offered free makeovers to visitors, a bespoke catwalk for performance and photo opportunities, and a 360-degree camera installation.
Glammed up with a fierce new look (with makeup provided by Benefits Cosmetics!), the only way out was to walk the runway, strutting their stuff while a drag queen host hyped them up before a cheering crowd.
THE SILENT DISCO
Festival revelers were encouraged to pop on special headphones and dance to their own beat all weekend long. The silent disco dome was a dynamic, glittering space decked out with a ceiling covered in disco balls and an iridescent mylar DJ booth.
