Michele Hratko
Leading the branding team of Pittsburgh’s largest fashion show.
As the cohead of the Lunar Gala 2025 brand and print team, I led a team of 5 designers to create the brand guidelines, posters, show booklet, and apparel for Pittsburgh’s largest annual fashion show. I collaborated closely with the creative directors and leaders of the stage, motion, web, and photography teams, to ensure alignment across a creative team of 50 designers and a cohesive day-of-show experience. Print Design & Brand Design
Time: September 2024 - March 2025
Co-headed with Melissa Qin
Creative directors: Ray Ka & Leslie Lin
Team: Joy Leung, Bill Guo, Wendy Yu, Gabrielle Acker, Sydney Cha
Tools: Figma, InDesign, Photoshop
Photos by Perry Chen
Branding Elysium
The theme, Elysium, comes from Greek mythology—originally known as the final resting place or paradise for heroes. We chose to reimagine Elysium not as a destination, but as an ongoing journey using a circular motif to represent evolution. This thread carried through print materials, motion backdrops, social graphics, and more in unexpected yet familiar ways.
Built Around a 4-Act Show
A large focus of the show this year was the expansion of the show from 1 act to a 4 act narrative structure that follows the story of elysium. We carried the 4 act structure into the branding system with a distinct color palette for each act.
Act 1: Emergence
Act 3: Hubris
Act 2: Blossom
Act 4: Embrace
Posters
Each clothing line was featured in a poster to advertise the show. We designed the posters to work as stand-alone posters on a bulletin board or in the hallway and as a collage that could serve as a photo backdrop day-of-show, bringing all of the lines together into one large poster.
Booklet
Each attendee received a 48-page booklet day of show. Each clothing line had a spread in the booklet highlighting the designer’s inspiration for the line and photographs of the pieces.
Booklets measure 6 in x 6 in trim size.
We worked closely with the fashion designers and photographers to create a booklet spread, poster, and postcard featuring each of the 14 lines.
Merchandise
We created two t-shirts, one in black for the Lunar Gala team and one in blue to be sold at the show. The Lunar Gala team walked the runway in these shirts at the end of the show.
Postcards
A postcard was also made for each fashion line. The postacards were for sale at the show and gifted to the clothing designers and photographers after the show.
Also, a shoutout to the very wonderful photography team for the incredible images used throughout the booklet, posters, and postcards.
Photos by X, Y, Z
Takeaways from leading a creative team.
Leading this team taught me so much about myself both as a designer and a leader. I learned about how to communicate creative direction and give critique in a constructive and supportive way while also facilitating an environment where designers feel comfortable trying new things. As an intermediary between the creative directors and the team, I was also responsible for aligning the CD vision with my team’s internal conversations and ideas to ensure that everyone’s ideas felt seen and everyone felt ownership over the final deliverables.
I’m very greatful to have worked with a wonderful team of designers who put in so much care and energy into this team. It was also wonderful to collaborate with so many multidisciplinary creatives within the larger team.
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