Local Chicago non-profit Fizz Swing Dance, established in 1999, launched their first brand identity in 2018.

Website: Public Website, Facebook Page
Role: Creative Director
Team: David O’Brien, Photographer and Erin Drewitz, Photographer

Starting At Ground Zero

Fizz is Chicago’s longest running social swing dance event, running every Monday night since 1999.  Despite the organization not having a brand presence, logo, defined voice and tone, or marketing they were able to thrive and grow over the years through word of mouth.

In March of 2018 the organization restructured bringing in a new leadership team. Though successful the last 20 years, the new President recognized the need for a change and contacted me as a creative resource and active member of the dance community. The initial scope included a logo, post card or flyer, and website refresh to include new logo and brand colors. 

The Limitations

The organization as a non-profit is headed by community members who are passionate about maintaining, building, and growing their event and social community for their peers. As full-time working adults, Fizz is a project out of love for the team. The project scope didn’t include a budget initially and the team’s goal was to have a logo as quick as possible.

Only Up From here

During the discovery and initial concept review phases, the team wasn’t fully hooked on the logo ideas. Shifting the conversations from a quick logo ask to a deeper strategy, together we revisited the project scope, timeline, and budget and restarted the project.

With more time and research a collaborative brief was created resulting in the following requirements:

  • Appeal to 3 segments of dancers: veteran/dedicated dancers, casual dancers, and emerging dancers.

  • Emit feelings of Fun, exciting, and youthful atmosphere with great music

  • Create a brand that welcomes dancers to come to both express and experience happiness felt from movement and music.

  • Communicate a low pressure social community vibe

  • Appeal to the largest audience segment in 20-35 age

Through the creative brief and conceptual design reviews, I guided the team to the realization of the need to expand the project beyond a logo mark. The project expanded to include flyers, give-away buttons, t-shirts, drink menu cards, content strategy, copywriting, social media creative assets, full website redesign, and a forthcoming promo video.

 

Fizz organizer and Social Media Manager got an undercut in the shape of the new logo for the launch event which saw its highest attendance for an event without live music.

L: Official event and marketing photographer poses with promotional flyer showcasing himself dancing. R: Fizz custom drink menu for Monday night events. Includes a Malort shot named after a dangerous and uncomfortable dance move in Swing Dancing.

 

The vibe

Dancers are expressive through feeling and movement and this brand needed to resonate with the feelings associated with dancing, live music, and community, and transcend demographics. Fizz and dance is for everyone, how could the logo convey that? How do you capture the brand’s heart and soul, movement, excitement, and happiness? How do you capture the energy of packed dance event?

I was inspired by comic book onomatopoeia, where sounds like “pop”, or “bang” are accompanied by illustrative movements that mimic its sound. For Fizz that meant capturing the sound and movement dancers’ feet create on the floor. The lines around the Fizz wordmark are two-fold. They represent both the foot strike on the floor and the energy that emits from dancers as they joyously react to music and partners they interact with. Paired with bold and vibrant colors and high quality dance photography, I wanted the energy to be felt even on paper.

 
 

The Outcome

Fizz implemented the new marketing and social media strategy leading up to their launch party resulting in one of the highest attended evenings of the year, exceeding the average of non live-music nights which typically hold higher attendance.

  • 500 buttons were created and given away in the first month of release resulting in a second buy of 500 more.

  • 60 t-shirts preordered for launch event

  • Outpouring excitement and positive feedback from the community.

  • Increased cross promotion at other local dance events

  • Increased attendance in lessons

  • A very happy team


 
 

An unexpected shift

In late 2020 as the pandemic halted all dance events, I helped transition the Fizz team to new online presence which included digital events. This meant re-imagining the brand and logo once again. This was a big shift for the team having solely relied on in-person dance events and a 20-year history to reel dancers in. Would dancers want to attend online events? What does an online event even look like with no dancing? With some discovery and brainstorming, we realized the heart of the organization is community, and during a time when community wasn’t possible with a deadly virus, and Fizz had an opportunity to be community outlet with out with out dancing.

Working collaboratively and closely with the team again, Fizz continued to thrive in the dance community completely online with:

  • 6 online events via Gather.town

  • 3 outdoor vaxx’d events

  • New social media campaigns spanning days and weeks leading up to major online events to engage audiences

  • On average, online events included 60 participants and as high as 100 attendees.