PANDA FEST
Building a Scalable Festival Brand System
Brand direction, social campaign systems, merchandise development, and AI-assisted product visualization for a growing U.S. festival series.
ROLE — Design Lead
TIMELINE — Sep 2025–Present
TEAM — Six-person multidisciplinary design team
SCALE — 20+ U.S. festivals in 2026
01 / OVERVIEW
A Festival Brand Built to Scale Across Cities
Panda Fest is a traveling U.S. festival series combining food, performances, vendors, and character-driven merchandise. The design challenge was to keep each event locally adaptable while maintaining a recognizable brand system across cities.
SCOPE
Brand refinement / Social campaign system / Merchandise development / Production handoff
02 / BRAND SYSTEM
Refining the Identity for Consistent Use
The original logo was commissioned externally. I corrected structural and application issues, refined the identity, updated the color system, and independently created the complete brand guide.
PLACEHOLDERS TO ADD
Logo before / after
Logo variants and clear space
Color palette
Body, title, and display typography
CREDIT
Original logo concept — External designer
Identity refinement and brand guide — Lejoy Li
03 / FESTIVAL CAMPAIGN SYSTEM
A Repeatable System for City-Specific Events
Each event required a consistent set of information-rich assets while dates, venues, vendors, schedules, and local content changed from city to city. I directed the social design workflow and final review across up to 15 recurring asset categories per event.
PLACEHOLDERS TO ADD
Event key visual
Vendor list
Performance schedule
Visitor information graphics
SCALE
20+ U.S. festivals scheduled in 2026
04 / MERCHANDISE DEVELOPMENT
Turning the Panda IP into Physical Products
I led design direction and production review across a growing merchandise line, translating character artwork into manufacturable products and maintaining visual consistency from concept through vendor handoff.
PLACEHOLDERS TO ADD
Plush development
Metal pins
Packaging
Selected produced merchandise
SCALE
12+ merchandise SKUs
05 / AI-ASSISTED PLUSH WORKFLOW
Using AI as a Controlled Visualization Step
To evaluate plush concepts before sampling, I build a gray model in Blender, create a viewport render, use reference-guided generation in Gemini to explore material appearance, and correct inaccurate details in Photoshop. The 3D blockout keeps proportion and construction decisions under designer control.
WORKFLOW
Blender blockout → Viewport render → Reference-guided Gemini generation → Photoshop correction → Production visualization
PLACEHOLDER TO ADD
One plush shown consistently across every stage
06 / ROLE & COLLABORATION
Leading Within a Multidisciplinary Team
I lead brand, social, and merchandise workflows within a six-person design team. My responsibilities include creative direction, task allocation, final approvals, upstream asset coordination, downstream production handoff, plush development, and production quality review.
I collaborate with illustrators, product and packaging designers, and spatial designers. Site planning and event-map ownership sit outside my direct management scope.
PLACEHOLDERS TO ADD
Team structure
Selected collaborator credits
Clear ownership by deliverable
07 / OUTCOMES & CREDITS
A System Designed for National Scale
2026 schedule — 20+ U.S. festivals
Typical attendance — 30,000–50,000
Typical vendor count — Approximately 100
Merchandise program — 12+ SKUs
PLACEHOLDERS TO ADD
Event photography
Merchandise in use
Final collaborator credits