The challenge
The White House partnered with SXSW to stage South By South Lawn (SXSL) — a one-day festival on the South Lawn celebrating creativity, innovation, and social impact. President Obama hosted; artists, entrepreneurs, and change-makers filled the grounds; a live conversation with Leonardo DiCaprio anchored the program.
The problem was scale and range in a single day. Outdoor stages, film screenings, interactive installations, food, and quiet conversation areas all had to feel like one event — not a collection of activations sharing a lawn. And the identity had to hold its own on the most photographed piece of real estate in the country.
Our approach
We drew on the energy of SXSW — the collision of ideas, art, and culture — and translated it into a visual system built for the White House. A cohesive design language tied together stage, exhibits, signage, print, and digital, with every touchpoint reinforcing the mission of innovation and social impact.
The system covered the full arc of the day: invitations and welcome cards, directional signage and blanket labels for the lawn, digital screens and stage graphics, and program collateral. Bold, approachable, and consistent — so guests could navigate the grounds intuitively and the design faded into the experience rather than competing with it.
The result
SXSL landed as a unified event. The identity carried across every surface — from the invite in the mailbox to the signage on the South Lawn to the screens flanking the stage — and gave a wildly diverse program a single voice.
The design made the day feel like one experience: a festival with the intimacy of a conversation and the reach of a national moment.