The Overview

The Atlanta Jazz Festival is regarded as one of the largest free jazz festivals in the country. In 2000, I was selected to design all of the festival graphics for that year.

When I met with festival organizers, I was shown the commemorative artwork that was commissioned for that year.  I loved the artwork and asked if I could use it as part of the festival branding, which was approved. From there, I created a look and feel that used colors from the artwork and developed a brand look and feel for several  print and digital items the included: 

• a festival logo

• a billboard,

• a MARTA bus ad,

• print and digital ads,

• the festival program and brochure,

• postcards,

• stage banners,

• t-shirts, and more.

After creating the event/festival logo for that year, organizers asked that I also create a logo for the Atlanta Jazz Festival organization.  To create this logo, I sketched letter forms until I saw a way to make the letters”AJF” into a symbol that felt connected and musical.

The logo that you see on this page is the original logo that I’d created in 2000. And, although they type treatment for the name has been updated, I am proud to say that the Atlanta Jazz Festival organization still uses the AJF symbol in their festival  branding to this day — 26 years later!