Art Bash Poster Suite
What is Art Bash?
Art Bash is an end of the year celebration for the first year students at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. The theme is contemporary art and design, celebrating the new ideas that come from the schools contemporary practices program. The goal of the identity is to harness the experience of embarking on a new journey as a first year student highlighting their discoveries, development, and the path that they will take moving forward. The posters will inform students and faculity of the different events and chances to submit work to be exhibited. The main event poster is large and shows all that Art Bash has to offer. The due date posters serve as an encouragement and a reminder to first year students to submit their work to the exhibition.
About the identity:
The Art Bash 2026 identity that I created captures the spirit of composing and subverting one’s artistic expression. The Contemporary Practices program embodies this by introducing students to new ways of creating and experiencing art. Students are uncertain of what will come of their journey, but each discovery sparks the next. This builds a momentum of exploration and growth. The identity embraces error as discovery. Glitching generates unexpected forms, colors, and compositions through continual iteration and chance. Expectations and methods of making are subverted by bending tools beyond their intended use to construct new results. In revealing what lies beneath the surface, each glitch uncovers hidden structures and possibilities, allowing something entirely new to emerge from what was once unseen. These moments of disruption and restoration compose a symphony that reveals the evolving portrait of one’s creative self.
Sizes:
Main Posters: 23in x 44.65in
Due Date Posters: 15.53in x 24in
Due Date Posters and Glitch Variations
The due date posters have a total of four variations that are to be hung in different locations around campus. People will encounter the posters in their different locations and experience the spirit of the glitch as they notice the changes in composition. The variations also reinforce iteration and hidden structures that are larger than what only one poster can show. This system brings the glitching into the physical world.
Art Bash 2026 Identity: Process
All of the glitch imagery was created by editing the source code of images of typography. I first designed bold Helvetica Neue text in Adobe Illustrator, stacked in the center of a poster-sized document. Some backgrounds are solid, others use gradients. I exported the vector type as a JPEG—the compression quality determines how extreme the glitching can become. Next, I opened the JPEG as a text file in my computer’s default text editor. When viewed this way, the image’s pixel data appears as code that tells the computer how to render it. I kept the original image open beside the text file to see changes in real time. As I altered and saved the text, the image shifted accordingly. The edits compound, allowing me to push the distortion further and reveal unexpected colors and shapes.
