South Side Home Movie Project

22B-12a

South Side Home Movie Project

Director
Firm
Date
2021

The South Side Home Movie Project (SSHMP) is a film and cultural preservation project within the University of Chicago that is supported by Arts + Public Life and UChicago’s Center for the Study of Race, Politics, & Culture. Through the five actions of collecting, preserving, digitizing, researching, and presenting, SSHMP advances the stories, culture, and legacy of Chicago’s South Side residents, in effect preserving history. These qualities position SSHMP as a work of social, spatial, and racial justice.

Span designed the SSHMP’s visual identity and website to embrace characteristics that are integral to the medium of film — stacking, sequence, film-grain, dust, scratches, and blurs. By honoring what is true to the aesthetic of film, we are able to balance SSHMP’s desire for large, hi-res images with their, at times, lo-fi archive materials. The customized ‘I’ of the SSHMP logotype and custom brand typeface is inspired directly from the film leaders and perfs. The inky, rounded, sans serif typeface offers a retro feel in how it relates to sign-painted letterforms familiar to the streetscape of Chicago’s South Side.

22B-12a_South Side Home Movie Project_Nick Adam/Leah Wendzinski