Behind the Look: NEA Foundation Gala

With its annual Salute to Excellence In Education Gala on the horizon…the National Education Association Foundation wanted to create a virtual environment where attendees and awardees alike felt an atmosphere of honor, celebration, and elegance. The show consists of several awards, performances, speeches from honored guests, sponsorships, and a dramatic surprise cash prize. Since the event is usually an evening black tie affair, the graphics and experience needed to communicate the same excitement and sophistication. To reflect and communicate the feel of an evening event, the show artwork included darker, deep violet tones with vibrant lights forming visually engaging patterns, flowing in and out of the screen. To visually connect the event with previous years of the show, the new artwork in the title graphic included some custom calligraphy which was familiar to the audience year to year. To mirror the bold and modern vision of the organization while still communicating an attitude of celebration, the typefaces used in the show artwork were a modern sans serif family combined with an elegant handwritten script with long flowing calligraphic tails in gold tones. These elements were all woven together in show graphics, supporting videos, live lower thirds, and website platform graphics to create an immersive elegant experience throughout the show, and the client team was ecstatic with the result, praising the look and feel of the artwork as ‘a triumph.’