Bringing Cultures Together Through Design and Experience
Carson's culture lives in its food, music, art, and people. GLOW NIGHT MARKET brings them together in a proposed recurring event built around discovery and connection. As a longtime resident and Cultural Arts Commissioner, I drew on community insight, audience research, and spatial design to shape a night out that feels local and open to all. The concept joins food, vendors, live acts, and digital play in one place. Beyond a single evening, it offers a platform for community talent and businesses. It gives neighbors more reasons to gather, visitors more ways to discover the city, and local culture a shared place to come alive after dark.
Brand Strategy
Opportunity
Carson has a rich culture, yet its events can be hard to find. Food, businesses, and creative talent offer many reasons to gather, but their value grows when people can discover them together. The opportunity was to create a recurring night market that connects these experiences in one welcoming place for residents and visitors, making local culture easier to explore.
Insight
Research showed 85% wanted food, music, vendors, and entertainment together, while 92% valued local businesses. People wanted a full night of discovery that felt welcoming, easy to explore, and worth sharing with others.
Strategy
Make shared discovery a reason to gather. The brand's values of Rooted, Unexpected, and Belonging guide a cultural market where Taste the Culture Feel the Glow connects food, music, and Carson life in an experience visitors help shape.
Brand Identity
GLOW invites people into Carson through a voice that is expressive, warm, and open to discovery. Rooted, Unexpected, and Belonging give the brand a clear center. The invitation is to find something new while feeling part of a place, whether someone arrives for food, music, a local business, or time with neighbors.
Surprising Midnight, luminous green, expressive type, hand-drawn stars, and a glowing letterform give the identity its energy. The contrast brings the character of a night market into the design, while patterns and bold messages carry the same invitation across signs, social posts, packaging, and shared spaces. The system feels alive after dark and warm enough to invite people in.
Applications
I carried the experience across a Food & Beverage Village, Artisan & Retail Market, live stage, and community seating. Transit, social, and website concepts connect the first invitation with the event itself. The event plan brings the brand into a shared space. Food, retail, live performance, community seating, and digital play give visitors reasons to explore, with clear signs and ADA-conscious paths supporting orientation. Shared visual cues help people understand what they can find, choose their own way through the market, and participate in the life of the city.
The Team
I developed GLOW as my ArtCenter capstone, leading research, brand strategy, visual identity, and experience design. It is a proposal for a recurring cultural market serving the City of Carson, California.
