BOSTON ASIAN AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL 2025 LOGO

So this year I was asked to design the BAAFF logo again! I'm deeply honored that I was allowed the opportunity again to make art for a festival I love, and getting to see my artwork on T-shirts and on a big screen.

Though I have to admit, I was incredibly stressed out making the logo, especially since I had to finish NAAAP Boston's logo and this one, all before leaving on my Hong Kong trip.

The logo was also due earlier than usual because of changes at the theater, so we had our work cut out for us.

I was given a bit of free reign, and the only guidance I was given was "Community" and "love" which was difficult to try to incorporate without making the logo look like a church potluck bulletin.

Thankfully the logo was accepted practically as is, and very little changed from the initial concept/thumbnail image, and the final product- at least conceptually.

Original Thumbnail/Concept

I cleaned it up and added more shadows and depth.

Cleaned up B & W Sketch

Once it was chosen, we finalized the lines. The big issue was color. Susan Chinsen (BAAFF's Festival Director) suggested a Purple and Blue color scheme, so we went for it.

Last year we were given special permission to use 2 colors in the logo, whereas previous logos were limited to 1. This continued onto this year, though we figured out a way to technically have 3 colors- with the third color being the color of the shirt/bg.

So- here's some of the Alternative Color Options.

Alt 1

Alt 2

Alt 3

I would've have been fine with any of these options, but this is the one that we ended up going with.

Final Logo

All done, right?

No! Only thing left is to animate it ^_^

Easier said than done. There's a LOT of moving parts to this logo, and approaching the animation, we had to figure things out piece meal, in a way that felt organic and didn't overwhelm the viewer. It took a lot, especially since the timing had to be pretty short.

I think we did a pretty good job- we, meaning my wife Corey and I. Corey is largely why the project looks so good, so any kudos given to me should be also thrown her way too.

The tough part was animating the Seigaiha pattern on the Snake, and the most time consuming part was the smoke plumes in the background.

What do you think? Did we nail it? Let us know!

We hope to see you at BAAFF this year, 10/16-10/19! You can get this logo on a nice piece of merch and brag to your friends lol ^_^

The Animation!