Cascadia Unfiltered
Event Title: Cascadia Unfiltered: Cascadia Poetry Festival After Party
Client: Greg Bem and Paul E. Nelson, Cascadia Poetics LAB, Seattle, WA
Timeline: October 2024
Format: 11 x 17 poster, web banner, social media tile
Overview: Cascadia Unfiltered promoted the after-party for Cascadia Poetry Festival 8, designed as a late-night, informal counterpoint to the festival’s structured readings and panels. The event brought together poets, artists, and organizers for an uncurated, high-energy gathering that emphasized spontaneity, overlap, and conversation—extending the festival’s community beyond the stage.
Design Approach: The poster translates that unfiltered atmosphere into form through dense, vertical composition and rhythmic visual interruption. A close-up photograph of the shadow cast by a vintage radiator cover—chosen for its perforated pattern and shifting geometry—serves as a textured field rather than a literal image, echoing noise, heat, and accumulation. Over this, stacked color blocks, wavering line motifs, and compressed typography create a sense of pressure and motion, suggesting voices overlapping and energy spilling beyond formal boundaries.
Type hierarchy favors immediacy over refinement: names cascade in a single column, aligned but intentionally crowded, reinforcing the sense of abundance and informality. The palette diverges from Cascadia Poetry Festival 8’s core system, using magenta as a connective anchor while introducing a deliberate warm-cool contrast to amplify momentum and visual intensity.
Additional Collateral: web banner, social media tile