Company: LSAV Powerhouse
Client: United Airlines
My role: Creative Director (independent contractor)
• Creative direction
• Thematic concepts
• Experiential concepts
• Exhibit design
United Airlines x SFF 2024
Event Experience Design
The TLDR
Partnering with LSAV Powerhouse, we transformed a Park City, Utah gallery into a vibrant multi-purpose space at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival for United Airlines and The Sundance Institute.
I developed nuanced thematic concepts and immersive print and digital exhibit designs integrating United’s new visual brand identity with The Sundance Institute’s mission to support underrepresented filmmakers and journalists.
Over the course of the festival, the space seamlessly modulated between a co-working lounge and café, panel venue, and networking hub – all while prominently showcasing the rich storytelling of Sundance Institute fellowship winners. The activation’s success led United Airlines to request a replication of the design for 2025.
United Airlines partnered with the Sundance Film Festival (SFF) to support filmmakers and journalists from historically underrepresented communities. Through two programs, The Sundance Institute Press Inclusion Initiative and a joint Artists Fellowship, United and SFF supported, celebrated, and showcased critical voices from these communities leading up to and during the festival.
The Context
LSAV Powerhouse, a skilled and accomplished production company, was hired to convert an existing gallery space in downtown Park City, UT into an exciting, multi-purpose lounge space for United and SFF to host grantees and fellows of the two programs mentioned above. The mandate was to create a flexible space that could modulate from a quiet, comfortable co-working environment to an energetic panel and event space, and further to a buzzing social lounge for evening networking events and festival parties.
Additionally, United Airlines had recently launched an updated visual brand system celebrating diversity through elements like an expressive and distinctive color palette and a dynamic, responsive formatting device. The space at SFF was a synergistic opportunity to share their new, bold identity.
To expand LSAV’s blue-sky thinking, boost the creative concepting, and infuse United’s identity system across touchpoints, I was hired to develop theme ideas and experiential concepts based on a predetermined space layout and feature exhibits.
The Challenge
Exhibit Plan | Rich Haines Gallery Space
United Airlines | Visual Brand System
The Solution
Taking inspiration from the core attributes of United and SFF and their shared commitment to supporting diverse filmmakers and journalists, I developed rich event theme concepts around the notion of transporting visitors to a more inclusive world (travel x diverse film and journalistic storytelling).
Each concept included a masthead theme, a verbal title, exterior and interior visual interpretations and moodboards, and high-level concepts for the interior feature exhibits.
Theme 1 | Airport Terminal > Up in the Clouds
Theme 1 | R1 Exhibit Experiential Concepts
Theme 2 | Departures, Airport Entrance > Future-Forward Terminal
Theme 2 | R1 Exhibit Experiential Concepts
Focusing on Theme 1 and adapting ideas from Theme 2, per client feedback, I created high-level elevation sketches to outline potential designs of the arrival experience.
The goal for United was to stand out from a distance and amongst other brands and activations, to amuse an eclectic and artistic mix of attendees, and to create a captivating experience at the threshold of the event space.
Exterior Arrival Concepts
I was responsible for developing many of the feature exhibit spaces including the cafe and bar area as well as the “Illuminated Feature Wall” which showcased the four filmmaker winners of the United Airlines | Sundance Film Festival Artist Fellowship. Concepts for both are displayed below.
R2 Interior Exhibit Experiential Concepts
The Results
These concepts fueled the LSAV Powerhouse creative and production teams in developing and executing an impressive multi-purpose festival event space.
In later phases of the project, I was asked to step back in to bring my expertise in applying the United brand identity system to digital and print applications throughout the space.