Established in 1978 by Asian CineVision (ACV), the Asian American International Film Festival (AAIFF) is the premier showcase for the best independent Asian, Asian diaspora and Pacific Islander cinema. In 2025, ACV celebrated its 50th anniversary, which this year’s festival paid homage to through its visual identity.

Established in 1978 by Asian CineVision (ACV), the Asian American International Film Festival (AAIFF) is the premier showcase for the best independent Asian, Asian diaspora and Pacific Islander cinema. In 2025, ACV celebrated its 50th anniversary, which this year’s festival paid homage to through its visual identity.

Overview

Services

Design Operations

Project Management

Technical Program Training

Brand Identity

Creative Direction

Design Systems

Illustration

Logo Design

Print Design

UX/UI Design

In 2025, twelve years following my initial involvement with AAIFF, I reprised my position as its lead designer, taking on an expanded role that blended the responsibilities of a lead designer, creative director, design manager, and project manager to develop the festival’s visual identity and train a team of 5-7 designers and junior designers on its execution and implementation.

In these capacities, I completed work along three parallel tracks: the first involved working with the organization’s creative director to concept and execute a unique visual identity based on recurring themes identified in the festival’s films that would also honor and commemorate ACV’s 50th anniversary. The second track involved developing a design workflow that integrated external teams where needed, a design ticketing system, brand guidelines, and assembling technical training materials for designers on how to use Figma and Notion, the primary programs (outside of Adobe Creative Cloud) we would be using to complete all design work and to facilitate the process. These documents were supplemented with team walkthrough calls, demos, and recordings to ensure all designers understood their responsibilities while navigating the design process. The last track involved creating a standardized design ecosystem that would support everyday design use. This included setting up project files, a design system library file that house styles, color tokens, assets, and components, and templates for more niche design applications like social media posts and key graphics.

Once design work commenced, I facilitated the ticketing process, held weekly team check-in and alignment meetings, provided design feedback, and gathered requirements for new work on an as-needed basis, eventually handing all creative reins back to the creative director once my involvement was fulfilled.

Overview

Services

Design Operations

Project Management

Technical Program Training

Brand Identity

Creative Direction

Design Systems

Illustration

Logo Design

Print Design

UX/UI Design

In 2025, twelve years following my initial involvement with AAIFF, I reprised my position as its lead designer, taking on an expanded role that blended the responsibilities of a lead designer, creative director, design manager, and project manager to develop the festival’s visual identity and train a team of 5-7 designers and junior designers on its execution and implementation.

In these capacities, I completed work along three parallel tracks: the first involved working with the organization’s creative director to concept and execute a unique visual identity based on recurring themes identified in the festival’s films that would also honor and commemorate ACV’s 50th anniversary. The second track involved developing a design workflow that integrated external teams where needed, a design ticketing system, brand guidelines, and assembling technical training materials for designers on how to use Figma and Notion, the primary programs (outside of Adobe Creative Cloud) we would be using to complete all design work and to facilitate the process. These documents were supplemented with team walkthrough calls, demos, and recordings to ensure all designers understood their responsibilities while navigating the design process. The last track involved creating a standardized design ecosystem that would support everyday design use. This included setting up project files, a design system library file that house styles, color tokens, assets, and components, and templates for more niche design applications like social media posts and key graphics.

Once design work commenced, I facilitated the ticketing process, held weekly team check-in and alignment meetings, provided design feedback, and gathered requirements for new work on an as-needed basis, eventually handing all creative reins back to the creative director once my involvement was fulfilled.

Overview

Services

Design Operations

Project Management

Technical Program Training

Brand Identity

Creative Direction

Design Systems

Illustration

Logo Design

Print Design

UX/UI Design

In 2025, twelve years following my initial involvement with AAIFF, I reprised my position as its lead designer, taking on an expanded role that blended the responsibilities of a lead designer, creative director, design manager, and project manager to develop the festival’s visual identity and train a team of 5-7 designers and junior designers on its execution and implementation.

In these capacities, I completed work along three parallel tracks: the first involved working with the organization’s creative director to concept and execute a unique visual identity based on recurring themes identified in the festival’s films that would also honor and commemorate ACV’s 50th anniversary. The second track involved developing a design workflow that integrated external teams where needed, a design ticketing system, brand guidelines, and assembling technical training materials for designers on how to use Figma and Notion, the primary programs (outside of Adobe Creative Cloud) we would be using to complete all design work and to facilitate the process. These documents were supplemented with team walkthrough calls, demos, and recordings to ensure all designers understood their responsibilities while navigating the design process. The last track involved creating a standardized design ecosystem that would support everyday design use. This included setting up project files, a design system library file that house styles, color tokens, assets, and components, and templates for more niche design applications like social media posts and key graphics.

Once design work commenced, I facilitated the ticketing process, held weekly team check-in and alignment meetings, provided design feedback, and gathered requirements for new work on an as-needed basis, eventually handing all creative reins back to the creative director once my involvement was fulfilled.

Overview

Services

Design Operations

Project Management

Technical Program Training

Brand Identity

Creative Direction

Design Systems

Illustration

Logo Design

Print Design

UX/UI Design

In 2025, twelve years following my initial involvement with AAIFF, I reprised my position as its lead designer, taking on an expanded role that blended the responsibilities of a lead designer, creative director, design manager, and project manager to develop the festival’s visual identity and train a team of 5-7 designers and junior designers on its execution and implementation.

In these capacities, I completed work along three parallel tracks: the first involved working with the organization’s creative director to concept and execute a unique visual identity based on recurring themes identified in the festival’s films that would also honor and commemorate ACV’s 50th anniversary. The second track involved developing a design workflow that integrated external teams where needed, a design ticketing system, brand guidelines, and assembling technical training materials for designers on how to use Figma and Notion, the primary programs (outside of Adobe Creative Cloud) we would be using to complete all design work and to facilitate the process. These documents were supplemented with team walkthrough calls, demos, and recordings to ensure all designers understood their responsibilities while navigating the design process. The last track involved creating a standardized design ecosystem that would support everyday design use. This included setting up project files, a design system library file that house styles, color tokens, assets, and components, and templates for more niche design applications like social media posts and key graphics.

Once design work commenced, I facilitated the ticketing process, held weekly team check-in and alignment meetings, provided design feedback, and gathered requirements for new work on an as-needed basis, eventually handing all creative reins back to the creative director once my involvement was fulfilled.

Theme development

Theme development

Theme development

Theme development

The AAIFF48 theme development process took place over several legs and was driven by the following desires:

01

Reflect themes present in the films featured in the festival’s lineup, as selected by the programming team

02

Honor fifty years of achievement and excellence of Asian CineVision, the organization that funds and organizes the Asian American International Film Festival each year

03

Capture the interest of a younger viewership through the visual identity and the film selections themselves

Through a series of design pitches and revisions, I finalized a direction that blended mixed media elements, the remedial Japanese art of kintsugi - the are of mending broken ceramic ware through the use of pine resin, lacquer, and gold - and cover images from Bridge: the Magazine of Asians in America, which was acquired by ACV in 1981. Tapping into the current wave of Y2K nostalgia, I introduced lo-fi textures, bold accents, hand lettered fonts, and created custom illustrations in a scribble style, to provide a more analog feel. The final look and feel was intended to celebrate the necessity and duty of cinema and art - particularly in trying times - and to evoke and capture the following qualities: hope, renewal, expression, momentum, purpose, and transformation.

BRIDGE Magazine covers from 50 years ago reprised in this year's festival designs in recognition of Asian CineVison's 50th anniversary

Social & digital distribution

Social & digital distribution

Social & digital distribution

Social & digital distribution

Cropping in profile feed view

Cover shown in reels tab

Reel footage

AAIFF48 animation completed by Candy Sui

Print distribution

Print distribution

Print distribution

Print distribution

Brand consistency

Brand consistency

Brand consistency

Brand consistency

To ensure consistency across the AAIFF48 brand, I developed a north star brand guidelines document for org-wide use and distribution. This document provided broad guidance and alignment on brand element usage and included a creative statement cosigned by the creative director on the origin and context of the festival theme. Additionally, I crafted a design best practices document for the design team that went into more granular detail on how to maintain brand consistency while making other, often smaller, design decisions. As design would be completed by a variety of designers with varying levels of experience and expertise, this document was intended to level set the team’s understanding of most, if not all, mechanisms and decisions driving the visual identity.

Brand Guidelines
Brand Guidelines document examples
Brand Guidelines document examples
Design Best Practices
Design templates