BET AWARDS_2018

Influential. Relevant. Personal.

These are the three key attributes I set out to build and structure the 2018 BET Awards campaign design around.

I really wanted to nod to a current and relevant influencer. Kehinde Wile immediately came to mind with his lush and vibrant portraits. Kehinde’s paintings made me think about what a portrait really is: A Moment in Time. This treatment is an ode to the vibrant textures and patterns in Kehinde’s portraits, and I turned that ode into a developed design system that creates a literal graphic ‘frame’ to display the photographs of the honored BET talent and stars of the evening. Each individual is framed by a unique photographic texture and put front and center into the layouts. The typography is bold and sleek and the color system vibrant. In addition to the campaign design, I also crafted the look of this year’s logo with the ‘star’ being the hero of the design, filled with curated patterns that tied into the overall campaign.

The campaign included on-air designs and toolkits, which the animation team brought to life with an amazing and fun motion style, out-of-home large scale print comps, and design templates and layouts for the live show event graphics. Additionally, I set up a 72-page style guide for the BET Team to provide a comprehensive overview of the design system and how each of the print files were set up and easily editable.

This was such an amazing campaign to work on with BET and truly an honor to design. Everything came together on Sunday, June 24th in Los Angeles and looked incredible.

COO + PRINCIPAL : Scott Matz
CREATIVE DIRECTION, CONCEPT & DESIGN : Alexis Ames
PRODUCER : Dean D’Adamo
ANIMATION : Ken Kruegger + Andy Cheung
SVP, EXECUTIVE CREATIVE DIRECTOR BETN : Kendrick Reid
VP, CREATIVE DIRECTOR BETN : Adrian Hilton
VP, CREATIVE DIRECTOR BETN : Josh Pelzek

Created at Thornberg and Forester

Alexis Ames

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