Essentially Ellington Festival
Essentially Ellington is a high school jazz band competition and festival that encourages young people to learn and play the music of storied composer and pianist Duke Ellington.
Due to the pandemic, the 26th EE took place online. Over the course of four days, students as well as the general public were invited to participate in events such as virtual Q&As and jam sessions. Student performances were pre-recorded and compiled by the video team and streamed as if "live" on the final day of the festival. I created a system that could unify all of these different components: a simple color palette of blues and a punchy yellow paired with a loose line-drawing doodle of Duke Ellington that served as the key art for the festival's visual identity.
The following examples are select still and motion graphics that were integrated into the webcast.
Header photo above courtesy of Caroll Senior High School.
Despite not having an in-person event, we were fortunately able to maintain the EE tradition of sending all the participating students home with a commemorative poster and T-shirt. Since these print pieces were mailed to each school ahead of the festival, there were fun moments during the live interview portions where you could spot them in the background.
Students decked out in shirts and posters
Photo courtesy of Plano West Senior High School
Education Director Todd Stoll interviewing students during the broadcast