New Work: Black and White Ball

Kit Hinrichs and Erica Wilcott worked with the San Francisco Symphony to design the identity and promotional materials for the city’s famous bi-annual Black and White Ball—a 5,000 person black-tie block party that took place on May 31 and featured over a dozen performers including Seal, Blues Traveler and Afrika Bambaataa performing in six venues arrayed in front of City Hall.

The mark suggests the evening’s various entertainment venues at the same time as it references a modern city block. Its modular form allowed for a high degree of design flexibility and visibility across a range of communications from invitations to street banners while presenting an updated look and feel for this traditional city event that began back in 1956.

The ball is one of San Francisco’s largest and most successful non-profit fundraising events. It benefits the symphony’s Adventures in Music program which provides music education to every San Francisco public school student in grades one through five. The evening sold out and was a phenomenal fundraising success with over one quarter of the attendees also attending the Patrons’ Dinner or other special events.