The Cultural Trail is an amenity for everyone who lives in or visits Indy: open 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, the 8 miles of trail connect 6 cultural districts to 40 more miles of Indianapolis Parks Greenway Trails. How does one mark the opening of such a monumental achievement in Indianapolis’ history? Turns out, the answer was quite simple.
Throwing an 8-mile long party
To celebrate the trail’s completion, Indianapolis Cultural Trail Inc. asked us to partner with them to help dream up and co-organize programming that would span all 8 miles of the trail, on Saturday May 11. All in all, there were over 80 activities led by about 6 dozen partners, which included a diverse cross section of the city’s arts organizations, sports teams, real estate interests, schools and museums. Some of the activities were one-on-one: games, live animals, body art and chalk art; there were group activities like yoga and fitness classes, scavenger hunts, and group sculpture; performances included step teams, magicians, acrobats, modern dance and music. View the entire activity and partner list here.
The centerpiece of the celebration was Big Car’s idea to create a convergence of four high school marching bands, who started from the outer edges of the Cultural Trail, marching musically until they reached Monument Circle and united to perform Kool & the Gang’s Get Down On It:
Get Down On It: IPS marching bands from Big Car on Vimeo.
Collaborative Design
Our involvement in Get Down On It also included marketing and design. We created the visual identity for the event, which was a synthesis between the Cultural Trail’s branding and a post-disco era roller rink feel. We created flyers, ads, programs, maps, coasters, banners and shirts.
The poster for the event, in the spirit of the Cultural Trail itself, was created through a collaboration between Big Car and four talented designers (Javier Barrera, David Benn, Terrence Campbell and Matthew Johnson), who each contributed their own version of “Get Down” in a modular format. View the final product here.
