Market Lates
A campaign identity for a community event series that needed to make Watford town centre feel like somewhere people chose to be.
Market Lates was conceived as an evening event series in Watford town centre — a way to bring people into the market after hours, create a social atmosphere around local traders and give residents a reason to be in their town centre on a weeknight.
The brief was to create a campaign identity that could span posters, digital assets and event signage. Something that felt energetic enough to generate interest but grounded enough to feel like it genuinely belonged to Watford.
Community event campaigns face a specific tension. If they feel too polished, they feel corporate — like something being done to the community rather than with it. If they feel too rough, nobody takes them seriously enough to show up.
The visual identity needed to sit in the space between those two failure modes. Warm enough to feel genuinely local. Considered enough to signal that someone cared about getting it right. And distinctive enough to cut through the noise of everything else competing for attention in a town centre.
The best event campaign makes you feel like you’d be missing something if you didn’t go.
The campaign mark was built around the energy of a night market — movement, warmth, gathering. It needed to work at large format on a poster and small format on a social tile without losing its character.
The colour palette drew from the warmth of market lights at dusk — tones that feel inviting rather than corporate. Typography that has personality without being difficult to read at distance.
A series of event posters designed to work across A2 and A3 formats, for display in shop windows, community noticeboards and council locations across Watford. Each poster serves the same campaign while feeling distinct enough to reward repeated exposure.
Social media tiles, story formats and digital advertising assets adapted from the poster campaign. Consistency across formats without being rigid — each asset is optimised for the platform it lives on.
Campaign assets shown in the environments they were designed for. A poster campaign only works if it works in the street — not just on screen.
Campaign work for community events is a good reminder that design exists in the world, not on screens. A poster that looks beautiful in a presentation but disappears on a busy high street has failed at its actual job.
Market Lates worked because the visual identity was built around visibility and warmth in equal measure. It was designed to be seen, and designed to make people feel something when they saw it.