case study

dallas
market
Center

IDENTITY + BRANDING + DIGITAL + COPYWRITING + VISUAL MERCHANDISING + PHOTO ART DIRECTION + VIDEO + EVENT DESIGN + PUBLICATION DESIGN + EXPERIENTIAL + RETAIL + WAYFINDING

The largest marketplace you’ve never heard of, built to move entire industries.

Dallas Market Center is a global trade hub where thousands of buyers and brands come together to connect, discover, and define what’s next in home, gift, lighting, and fashion. It’s not a mall or a convention center, but a five-million-square-foot city within a city.

Our task was to bring order to the scale. Six markets, six voices, one brand system that spoke clearly to both buyers and exhibitors while holding its shape across websites, wayfinding, publications, and live events.

The work was as much architecture as design—building a living framework that made Dallas Market Center feel unified, intelligent, and undeniably alive.

context

Dallas Market Center hosts six major industries under one roof: home, gift, lighting, apparel, western, and equestrian. Each had evolved its own look, tone, and rhythm—creating a brand that felt more divided than diverse.

The challenge was scale and fragmentation. Six markets. Six voices. Twenty-four times a year. No shared design language. The goal was to bring everything into focus without losing the individuality that made each market distinct.

approach

We split the brand by audience:
buyers and exhibitors.

Two tracks. Two kinds of storytelling.

For buyers, we built campaigns that inspired discovery.

For exhibitors, tools that simplified participation.

From there, we designed a modular system—color, type, imagery, and tone—that could flex across markets and seasons while keeping a single identity intact.

solutions

We built a complete creative toolkit:
brand identity, photo art direction, video, publication design, wayfinding, and event/experiential environments.

For fashion markets like Western, Equestrian, and Contemporary, we produced one photo campaign that served as a shared image bank. Three markets, one cohesive story.

Buyer and exhibitor materials were rewritten and redesigned with the same discipline—clean hierarchy, modern typography, and intuitive layouts. Even operational design became part of the brand experience.

  • website overhaul

  • SPARK MAGAZINE

  • designers guide magazine

  • photo editorials

  • category campaigns

  • buyers guide

  • market signage

  • wayfinding

  • fashion shows

  • operational signage

  • seasonal + Market visual merchandising displays

  • interactive displays

  • environmental design

  • ARTS AWARDS SHOW

  • marketing brochures

  • registration materials

Western & English
Sales Association

When the architecturE is strong, the story can move freely.

apparel + Accessories

Consistency isn’t repetition.
It’s recognition.

American equestrian
trade association

Consistency isn’t repetition.
It’s recognition.

publications

interior + home design center

lightovation

The system unified six markets under one confident voice.

  • Consistent identity across all verticals/markets for the first time

  • Streamlined production cycles for campaigns and collateral

  • Elevated perception of DMC as a modern design authority.

The result: a marketplace that finally looked as intelligent and ambitious as the people inside it.

What once felt like six separate worlds became one living brand.

impact

reflection

This project taught me that design at scale is an act of translation.

You don’t erase difference—you give it a shared language.

Order isn’t about control. It’s how meaning begins.