39th Annual CLE Film Festival Marketing Mockup

Advertising Design, Illustration The 39th Annual Cleveland International Film Festival needed a campaign. The theme was mine to invent — and somewhere between a stock photo search and a childhood memory of Jules Verne, a hot air balloon floated into frame. "Around the World in Eleven Days" became the conceptual anchor: film as transportation, cinema as a way of traveling without moving. The balloon illustration started as a traced reference photo, then became something more specific — the basket reimagined as a bucket of popcorn, the netting rendered in warm reds and oranges against a deep teal sky. Small details, but the kind that reward a second look. From there the system expanded beyond what the assignment required: a main poster, billboard, bus signage, tote bag, t-shirt, and buttons — each carrying the same illustration and palette across very different surfaces and scales. Getting the design to feel intentional on a billboard and equally intentional on a 1-inch button meant thinking carefully about what could simplify and what had to stay. The mockup process — placing flat artwork convincingly onto curved buttons and real-world environments — turned out to be the most technically demanding part of the project. The result is a campaign that feels like an invitation. Come see the world. Popcorn optional.