Project: International Folk Art market

The handmade is a story told by artist’s hands.

Branding

Creative Direction

Design

UX / UI

Social + Ads

Photography

Print Promotional

Wayfinding

Challenge

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The annual International Folk Art Market Santa Fe, one of the world's largest, needed a flexible design system. It had to maintain organizational branding and storytelling while honoring hundreds of master artisans throughout a massive high-visibility event. And it needed to reinvent itself every year.

With 20,000 annual visitors, 1,700 volunteers, extensive print distribution (70,000+ market magazines), and year-round fundraising campaigns, every design decision had to balance cultural sensitivity with operational efficiency. In short, the challenge was creating a system that could feature different artists and cultures each year while keeping the Market instantly recognizable.

Process

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As lead Designer and Art Director over six years, I worked with the Creative Director, marketing team, photographers, and board to develop a dual-branding approach. Each year, a committee selected a featured artist—one year, an Egyptian textile cooperative's woven bird motifs—and I would abstract their work: tracing individual elements, deconstructing patterns, and reimagining them across 100+ applications using that year's color palette.

We had to break our own rules: each year the artist's work pushed us to adapt our palette, typography or layout systems; honoring their craft was more important than rigid brand consistency. The work required us to cycle constantly—designing for billboards, pole banners, tent signage, shirts, bags, programs, invites, ads, website, social media, and donor materials while the event itself evolved. We learned what messaging resonated with different donor segments, which artists attracted the most engagement, and how to evolve campaigns to create deeper year round connections between supporters and artisans.

Process

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Impact

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The design work included evolving seasonal fundraising approaches—such as a “sponsor an artist” campaign that directly connected donors with artisans—and helped the Market maintain 91% repeat visitor rates and generate up to $31 million annually in artist sales, impacting 1.1 million lives globally.

The visual identity became highly recognizable in Santa Fe, with hundreds of volunteers wearing their customized market shirts year-round, and contributed to $13.7 million in local economic impact. The Market's cultural significance has garnered extensive media recognition, including features in The New York Times (“You Call It Craft, I Call It Art”), Vogue (street style coverage), Architectural Digest, Forbes, PBS NewsHour, WWD, Dallas Morning News, and Cowboys & Indians, establishing IFAM as a premier cultural event where, as PBS noted, “culture is the commodity.”

Impact

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