Lakefront festival campaign uses arresting visual shorthand

A new campaign is launching to promote one of Milwaukee’s gems and Bader Rutter is helping make it memorable.  

As part of our commitment to help promote the city’s best, we have taken on the campaign for the Milwaukee Art Museum’s annual Lakefront Festival of Arts. Our campaign thematic makes use of both the iconic Santiago Calatrava-designed Quadracci Pavilion and the beautiful lakefront setting of the Milwaukee Art Museum. The result is a visual short-hand for the event and its location. The campaign is built around a simple graphic image of a festival tent that has sprouted sail-like wings, ala the Burke Brise Soleil, set on the grassy banks of the sun-lit Lake Michigan shoreline. Both sophisticated and playful, the campaign helps set an expectation for the caliber of the event, now in its 48th year.  

One of the first festivals of the summer, Lakefront Festival of Arts is held June 18 – 20 on the Milwaukee Art Museum grounds, both in and around the Museum. Featuring nearly 200 top local, national and international artists, the festival is considered among the top 25 in the country. Though art exhibition and sale is the feature act, there is great live music, a wine garden, gourmet-caliber food and activities to inspire kids’ inner artist. Festival goers can also tour the Museum’s permanent collection and feature exhibitions all for the price of festival admission.

The campaign includes print, online and broadcast advertising in the Milwaukee, Madison and Northern Illinois markets, as well as a comprehensive PR initiative to promote the festival experience.  

The Lakefront Festival of Art is an example of our city’s development into a truly cosmopolitan cultural center with a great quality of life. Our hope is to make this the first of other engagements that will allow us to use our talents to elevate the profile of Milwaukee’s best to audiences both in and outside the city.