Modern Phoenix Week 2020 Recovery Campaign

Modern Phoenix Week, a treasured annual cultural event 16 years in the running, was set to launch ten days of programming on March 13. This is the same fateful day that Arizona locked down due to concern about the spread of COVID-19. College students were sent home and told not to return from spring break. Workers shifted to remote modes. Cultural gatherings were cancelled across the board. Nobody knew what the future held, or when normalcy would resume. This new normal dragged on for months longer than anticipated, largely due to Arizona's mishandling of public safety protocols.

Modern Phoenix Week's illustration-driven collateral and communications pivoted to social media to communicate event updates to their ticket-holding audience. Interspersed with talking head videos, animated GIFS of the seasonal campaign's dragonfly mascot helped play the part as a Greek Chorus. They spoke tidbits of truth to the listeners on social media and on the event's website as it underwent a dramatic reinvention spanning six months of event delays. In times of trouble, messages from the dragonflies heralded hope.