Salsa in Toronto is one of Canada’s largest street festivals. In 2023, I spearheaded the rebranding efforts and directed a team of designers, overseeing all static designs, from web graphics to print assets for both pre-promotion and the event itself. Since 2023, I have worked on the majority of the festival’s visuals aspects, refining and enhancing the branding to mark the festival’s 20th anniversary celebration in 2024.
The brand’s visual identity felt outdated and lacked cohesion, with the logo design appearing visually redundant as the Salsa in Toronto (umbrella brand) and Salsa on St. Clair logos were displayed side by side despite being nearly identical. Marketing graphics were cluttered, often overloaded with information and missing a clear hierarchy, which made the messaging confusing and diluted the brand’s impact. These issues contributed to a lackluster presentation that did not effectively communicate the brand’s identity or values.
The moodboard was designed to evoke the vibrant essence of tropicalism, capturing the lively energy of South American cultures. The visuals blend bold, bright colors — radiant reds, sunny yellows, and refreshing blues — with natural elements.
It’s a visual exploration aimed at creating an atmosphere that celebrates summer and feels warm, inviting, and inclusive.
The color palette was carefully chosen to reflect the core characteristics of the festival and to reinforce these values within the community. Each color conveys energy, inclusivity, and celebration, reflecting the spirit of the event.
Sans-serif fonts were selected to bring a modern and clean aesthetic to the branding, while also ensuring excellent readability across all mediums. The primary font, Lemon Milk, is used predominantly in its bold form — symbolizing the pride Latin Americans take in their heritage and the strength of our message.
The Salsa Festival logo is a tribute to Toronto’s vibrant and growing Latin community. It reflects the city’s multicultural spirit, with overlapping letters that create a feeling of movement and connection — symbolizing the blend of cultures, traditions, and energy that define both the festival and the city itself. The design highlights the color, rhythm, and inclusivity the festival brings to the community.
This is more than just a brand guideline; it’s a design framework created not only with the design team in mind but for the entire company involved in creating presentations and documents for the event. In addition to the usual elements found in brand guidelines, I included fundamental pages addressing basics like minimum padding around text, ensuring clarity and consistency across all materials.
In 2024, the Salsa Festival expanded its reach to include Tremblant as a branch festival in Quebec, celebrating Latin culture. We maintained the existing branding by preserving its signature graphic elements. For this regional edition, we introduced a new color palette featuring the municipality’s dark red and incorporated the iconic Tremblant tower, blending local charm with the festival’s vibrant identity.
The Salsa Festival includes Blue Mountain as a longstanding branch celebration, keeping the core branding elements intact while introducing a distinct color palette inspired by the region’s name. This palette layers various shades of blue alongside vibrant orange accents, creating a fresh yet cohesive look.
The Salsa Ambassador Search, a nationwide casting call for the next host and ambassador of Salsa events, builds on the festival’s signature branding while introducing a refreshed approach to color usage. This project emphasizes warm, vibrant gradients that reflect the passion, dynamism, and inclusive spirit at the heart of Latin culture.
I took charge of the photography direction after the previous year’s results fell short of expectations. To ensure a better outcome, I created a comprehensive deck highlighting examples of desired and undesired styles to guide the photographers. The final photos successfully captured the event’s multicultural essence and conveyed its vibrant, fun, and dancing energy.
