Turning the table Arvin Paelmo

2023 Applied Arts Student Awards juror Arvin Paelmo, ZAK's Co-Founder, Art Director, Vancouver, BC shared his favourite 2022 project with us, the Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) campaign. The VIFF is an acclaimed annual festival and a premiere arthouse cinema located in Vancouver, BC, Canada — with a complex and impactful festival and year-round program that boasts over 1,500 annual screenings and events.

For the 2022 edition of the Vancouver Film Festival, ZAK decided to explore a new dimension of art direction for the festival campaign. Campaigns of years past have traditionally been some sort of 2D graphic treatment. For 2022, they explored how the VIFF word mark could be used in 3D to bring new life to an event that is synonymous with Vancouver.

What were some unique features of the campaign?

With VIFF being a perennial client for ZAK, creating unique designs and elements that differ from the prior year is always a welcomed challenge. For 2022, we implemented 3D elements using a mixture of coloured acrylic and semi-opaque glass. The end result is a campaign that feels premium, and one that can co-exist in static and dynamic formats.

What were the success stats or indicators?

Honestly one of the major success stats is the buzz around the campaign in general. 2022 was a good one for that - so much so that we saw a thread on the Vancouver subreddit that was complaining about how much it seemed like the festival spent on their marketing instead of other things. As an official festival partner, we can definitely tell you that as a non-profit, they did not spend all their money on marketing and that the organization is run by people who love cinema, as well as a plethora of volunteers and vendors offering their services.

Can you give us some "peeks" behind-the-scenes?

The art and creative direction process for this campaign was a fun journey. We knew from the get go that we wanted to move away from the flat 2D elements of prior years. Our problem is how exactly are we going to accomplish that and convey it to our client. As amateur cinephiles and watcher-of-many-YouTube-videos, our team tried to find a simple cinematography motif or style which we can abstractly replicate in our campaign. We found the use of reflection, depth, and angles to be particularly interesting and ran with it by applying those ideas to VIFF’s logo. The client also appreciated that there was a singular thread of idea in our campaign which tied back to cinema.

Why is this particular project a fave?

This one’s a particular favourite because it’s the first time our team got to flex our 3D creation skills, and it opened up more possibilities of what we’re able to do for other projects and clients.

It’s also a favourite because we got to work with a local media production company (PostPro Media) again, and they helped us bring our idea to life through motion and video.

Can you give us your opinion on what you think made this project a success?

The ongoing brand recognition that VIFF as an organization has been building year after year continues to be a point of success for us in each iteration of their festival campaign. Vancouver is a small city, and knowing that we’re able to play a part in helping shape one of its leading arts and culture events is something we do not take for granted.

Case Study: VIFF 2022 | Website: wearezak.com | Instagram: @wearezak / @arvinpaelmo 

Congratulations on such a successful campaign ZAK!