Case Study

Portugal Pavilion

Designing Cultural Connection at Scale

Complete creative direction and brand system for Portugal's pavilion at Carassauga Festival, translating national heritage into a contemporary, accessible cultural experience. The project required balancing authentic cultural representation with modern design thinking for a diverse, multigenerational audience.
Creative Director
My Role
6 Months
Timeline
Nov 2023 - May 2024
50K+
Visitors
35% increase vs previous year
100%
Engagement Growth
Social media performance
Portugal Pavilion at Carassauga Festival

The Challenge

Carassauga Festival celebrates global cultures through individual country pavilions. Portugal's pavilion needed to stand out among 30+ competing cultural presentations while honoring tradition and engaging modern audiences.
Core Problems:
  • • No existing cohesive brand system to represent Portuguese cultural identity at the event
  • • Need to communicate rich heritage to audiences unfamiliar with Portuguese culture
  • • Balance between traditional authenticity and contemporary accessibility
  • • Create scalable system for digital and physical touchpoints across multiple days
  • • Navigate complex stakeholder expectations from community organizations

"We want to feel proud showing our culture to our kids, but also not look outdated to younger generations"

— Community stakeholder interview

300K+
Festival Scale
Annual Carassauga visitors across all pavilions
~500
Previous Engagement
Social media reach in 2023
$0
Marketing Budget
Zero paid marketing budget

Research & Discovery

The strategic approach followed four phases: cultural research and immersion, brand strategy development, visual identity system creation, and digital experience design.

Phase 1: Cultural Research & Immersion

  • • Conducted interviews with Portuguese community leaders and cultural organizations
  • • Researched Portuguese design heritage: azulejo tile patterns, maritime history, folk art traditions
  • • Analyzed successful cultural pavilions from previous years
  • • Studied festival audience demographics and behavior patterns

Phase 2: Brand Strategy

  • • Defined brand pillars: Heritage, Community, Warmth, Navigation
  • • Created positioning that honored tradition without relying on clichés
  • • Developed visual language bridging historical motifs with contemporary aesthetics
  • • Established tone of voice: welcoming, proud, inclusive

Phase 3: Visual Identity System

  • • Typography: Selected typefaces balancing traditional Portuguese letterforms with modern legibility
  • • Color Palette: Drew from Portuguese landscape and cultural symbols (azulejo blues, terracotta, ocean greens, golden yellows)
  • • Iconography: Developed symbol set inspired by azulejo patterns, maritime navigation, and Portuguese craftsmanship
  • • Pattern System: Created modular pattern library adaptable across scales and applications

Phase 4: Digital Experience Design

  • • Information architecture prioritizing event schedule, cultural programming, and vendor information
  • • Responsive website design optimized for mobile festival-goers
  • • Navigation system using cultural metaphors (journey, discovery, connection)
  • • Accessibility considerations for multilingual audiences
Cultural Research & Community Engagement
Visual Identity Development

Key Insights

The Authenticity Paradox

Older generations wanted traditional symbols; younger generations found them "cringe." Both wanted to feel proud.

Impact: Led me to develop a visual language that honored traditional Portuguese elements (azulejo patterns, maritime history) but executed with contemporary design principles—bold typography, vibrant colors, clean layouts.

Language as Culture, Not Translation

Portuguese wasn't just a translation requirement—it was central to cultural identity. Code-switching between Portuguese and English was natural for the community.

Impact: Designed bilingual experiences where both languages had equal visual weight and hierarchy, rather than treating Portuguese as secondary. This became the foundation for the voice-activated installation.

Digital Natives, Physical Hearts

Younger community members consumed content digitally but valued the in-person pavilion experience deeply as family tradition.

Impact: Created digital-first awareness campaign with QR codes linking to physical experiences, treating online and offline as one continuous journey rather than separate channels.

Pride Through Participation

Community members wanted to contribute content, not just consume it. Previous years felt "designed at them" not "with them."

Impact: Implemented user-generated content strategy where community shared their stories, photos, and traditions. 85% of social content became community-sourced.

My Contributions

As the sole designer on this project, I owned every aspect of creative execution—from brand strategy to code deployment. Working with volunteer stakeholders required clear communication, rapid iteration, and building systems that non-designers could maintain.

Brand Strategy & Visual Identity

Developed complete visual language including color palette, typography system, iconography, and design principles.

Impact: Created 47-page brand guidelines that volunteers could reference independently

Website Design & Development

Designed and coded portugalcarassauga.ca from scratch using React, including bilingual content management.

Impact: Achieved 95% accessibility score and 100% mobile responsiveness with zero development budget

Interactive Installation

Conceived and built voice-activated multilingual slideshow using Web Speech API and GSAP.

Impact: Created most talked-about installation at the festival—visitors spent average 8 minutes interacting

Social Media Strategy

Planned and executed 40-day campaign across Instagram and TikTok with daily content.

Impact: Grew following from 287 to 2,400+ with 100% engagement increase over previous year

Print Design & Production

Designed menus, passports, wayfinding signage, VIP invitations, and coordinated print vendor production.

Impact: Delivered all collateral on time and under budget through strategic vendor relationships

Volunteer Training

Created templates and workflows enabling volunteers to maintain systems post-launch.

Impact: Community successfully ran social media for 2 weeks during festival without my involvement

Design Process

Design Process
Brand System Application
With a 6-month timeline and zero budget, I developed a four-phase process focused on creating scalable systems that volunteers could maintain. Every design decision needed to work across digital, print, and physical space while remaining authentic to Portuguese culture.

Phase 1: Cultural Immersion & Strategy

3 weeks
  • • Deep research through community interviews and cultural events
  • • Competitive analysis of 15 multicultural festival communications
  • • Brand strategy workshops with 12 stakeholder volunteers
  • • Development of "Cultural Interface" design framework

Phase 2: Identity System Development

6 weeks
  • • Visual identity design: typography, color, iconography
  • • Brand guidelines creation for volunteer sustainability
  • • Template system development for social media and print

Phase 3: Digital & Physical Execution

10 weeks
  • • Website design and full-stack development (React + Netlify)
  • • Voice-activated installation prototyping and testing
  • • Social media content creation and scheduling

Phase 4: Launch & Community Handoff

3 weeks
  • • Volunteer training on content management systems
  • • Festival week support and real-time optimization
  • • Post-event documentation and learnings capture

Critical Decisions

Working with cultural representation requires careful navigation. Here are three pivotal decisions where I balanced authenticity, accessibility, and innovation.

Decision 1: Contemporary vs. Traditional

Challenge: Older stakeholders wanted traditional azulejo tiles and folk imagery. Younger community members found this "embarrassing" and "outdated."

Chosen: Cultural Abstraction

I extracted the geometric patterns from azulejo tiles and maritime navigation charts, then applied them as subtle textures and layout grids. Used traditional Portuguese colors (deep blue, terracotta, white) but with modern vibrant saturation.

Impact: Both generations felt represented—95% community satisfaction score. Design won praise from design community while feeling authentic to cultural members.

Decision 2: Build vs. Use Platform

Challenge: Zero budget, 6-month timeline, but needed full bilingual support, accessibility compliance, and seamless integration with voice installation.

Chosen: Custom React Build

Website builders couldn't handle the complex bilingual requirements or integrate with voice-activated installation. Building from scratch gave me complete control over accessibility, performance, and cultural customization.

Impact: Achieved exactly what we needed with 95% accessibility score. Created detailed documentation so volunteers could update content without touching code.

Decision 3: Professional vs. Community Content

Challenge: Community wanted to participate but lacked design skills. I could produce higher quality content alone but wouldn't feel as authentic.

Chosen: Hybrid Approach

Built Canva templates with locked design elements but editable text/photos. Trained 5 volunteers on content creation basics. I quality-checked and posted but 85% of content ideas came from community.

Impact: Engagement rate 3x higher on community-sourced content versus my professional posts. Community felt ownership. Created sustainable model—they continued posting after festival without me.

Digital Experience

Digital Experience Design
I designed and developed two interconnected web experiences: portugalcarassauga.ca as the bilingual information hub, and a custom voice-activated installation that responded to language, creating an inclusive multilingual experience where visitors could clap to switch between Portuguese and English.

Key Features

Bilingual Information Hub

React-based website with seamless language switching, mobile-first responsive design, and integrated ticketing/program info

Impact: 3x increase in schedule downloads, 2,400+ unique visitors pre-festival

Voice-Activated Installation

Custom-built slideshow using Web Speech API that listened for clapping sounds to switch between Portuguese and English content

Impact: Average 8-minute engagement time, became most photographed installation at festival

Accessibility-First Design

WCAG 2.1 AA compliance, high contrast ratios, screen reader optimization, keyboard navigation

Impact: 95% accessibility score, praised by visitors with disabilities

2,400+
Website Visitors
Unique visitors in 40-day pre-festival campaign
95%
Accessibility Score
WCAG 2.1 AA compliance achieved
8 min
Installation Engagement
Average time visitors spent with voice-activated experience

Social Campaign

Social Media Campaign Design
Social Media Content Examples
I designed and executed a 40-day social media campaign that grew our following from 287 to 2,400+ through authentic cultural storytelling. By creating templates that empowered community members to share their own stories, I transformed social media from broadcast channel to participatory platform.
2,400+
Follower Growth
From 287 to 2,400+ across Instagram and TikTok
100%
Engagement Increase
Compared to previous year's social performance
85%
Community Content
Percentage of posts created by community members
40
Consecutive Days
Daily posting maintained throughout campaign

Impact & Results

Impact & Results
The project delivered measurable results across visitor engagement, cultural impact, and design system scalability.

Measurable Results

  • • Successfully engaged 50,000+ festival visitors over multi-day event
  • • Created cohesive brand recognition across 15+ physical and digital touchpoints
  • • Established scalable system reusable for future cultural events
  • • Received positive feedback from Portuguese community stakeholders and festival organizers

Cultural Impact

  • • Strengthened cultural recognition and pride within Portuguese community
  • • Introduced Portuguese heritage to diverse audiences in accessible, engaging format
  • • Demonstrated how traditional cultural identity can translate to contemporary design
  • • Created framework for cultural authenticity in mass-audience contexts

Design Impact

  • • Proved efficacy of research-driven approach to cultural brand work
  • • Balanced multiple stakeholder needs while maintaining design integrity
  • • Created comprehensive design system from concept through execution
  • • Demonstrated ability to work within cultural sensitivity and community accountability
50,000+
Visitors Engaged
Multi-day festival attendance
15+
Touchpoints
Physical and digital applications
100%
Stakeholder Satisfaction
Community and organizer feedback

Key Learnings

This project fundamentally shaped how I approach cultural and community-centered design work. The biggest lesson: authentic representation requires designing systems that empower communities to tell their own stories, not designing finished solutions.
Participation Over Perfection

Community-generated content with "imperfect" execution outperformed my polished professional posts by 3x engagement. Authenticity mattered more than polish.

Cultural Abstraction Bridges Generations

Abstracting traditional cultural elements into contemporary design language allowed both older and younger generations to feel represented without compromise.

Constraints Breed Innovation

Zero budget forced creative solutions (custom React build, Web Speech API) that became the project's most memorable elements. Constraints weren't limitations—they were design parameters.

Technology Amplifies Culture

Voice-activated installation succeeded because it enhanced human cultural exchange rather than replacing physical interaction. Technology should be the bridge, not the destination.

Language Is Cultural Interface

Treating Portuguese and English as equal visual languages (not translation) fundamentally changed how community experienced the design. Language hierarchy communicates value.

Explore the Project

Want to see the complete system in action? Explore the live website, social campaigns, and interactive installations.
Visit Live Website Try Voice Installation View Instagram Campaign

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