Congressional Record
A concert that needed to look like an institution.
A bipartisan evening on Capitol Hill where members of Congress perform for arts education. It came to Workhorse with a name, a wordmark, and a record already in hand. The job was to keep them and make them hold, edition after edition, so the event reads like it had always been on the calendar.
Members of Congress on stage with professional musicians, in a bipartisan evening that argues for arts education and the federal funding behind it. The Kennedy Center, the Library of Congress, Roll Call, and the Recording Academy convene it, timed to the week the music industry comes to Washington to make the case.
The record is
the brand.
It came with the event, drawn from the historical Congressional Record. Workhorse cut a new master and pressed it four ways.
Brought to the project
Sep 17, 2024
Re-cut by Workhorse
New master
The label becomes
a calendar.
Lift the engraved Capitol off the record and it works flat, as a seal. The field holds. Workhorse made the date the only variable, so each edition re-cuts from one master, like the Congressional Baseball Game.
Design System
A newspaper-register mark, modernized and built into a system.
A wordmark set like a masthead, brought to the project by the client and drawn from the historical Congressional Record. A twelve-inch record, modernized by Workhorse, with the Capitol engraved on the label and doubling as a dated seal that advances each edition. A narrow palette that lets the record carry the color. The system holds a bipartisan Capitol evening together across editions.
Color Palette
Navy
Primary ink. Wordmark, label type, the engraved field.Red
Accent. Label ring, invitation rules, broadcast titles.Gold
The record at its richest. Covers, seals, key placements.Cream
Surface. Paper stock, page ground, on-screen base.White
Reverse surface for navy applications.Contrast Pairings
How the palette colors perform together — text on surface combinations ranked by contrast ratio.
Aa
Navy
Aa
White
Aa
Navy
Aa
Cream
Aa
Red
Aa
White
Aa
Navy
Aa
Gold
Aa
Red
Aa
Cream
Aa
Red
Aa
Gold
Type System
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
Prestige Elite · 0123456789 · 400
Cheltenham Condensed
Display. Headlines and section titles.
Franklin Gothic
Body, captions, metadata. Site title in the compressed cut.
Prestige Elite
Accent only. Dates, IDs, ledger lines.
Marks & Lockups
A system that grew with the festival.
What started as a wordmark in 2015 grew into a complete mark library — lockups, compact icons, laurels, anniversary seals, sub-brand treatments, and social assets. Each addition answered a real need as the festival expanded.
01Primary Wordmark
02Full-Color Lockup
03First Edition Seal, 2024
04Second Edition Seal, 2026
05Edition Seal, Single-Color
06Arch Lockup
07America 250 Partner Mark
08Wordmark, Reverse
092026 Titles Lockup
10Edition Seal, Reverse
The guidelines are a page on the live site.
No PDF in a folder. The same theme.json that styles the homepage renders the book. The brand updates, the book updates, the change versions in git.
Everything filed in one place.
Everything this brand is made of.
The marks, the palette, the type, and the designed work that carries them. One source feeds the live brand and this wall. Click any tile to open it.
2024 invitationPrint Design
2026 invitationPrint Design
2026 letterheadPrint Design
Astromax · Treasure IslandPrint Design
Event shirtPrint Design
Record stickerPrint Design
American Soundscapes · AlabamaEnvironmental Graphics
Event screen, partner slideEnvironmental Graphics
2024 partner lockupEnvironmental Graphics
2026 cover, wideSocial Media Design
2026 cover, bannerSocial Media Design
NAMM partner card 01Social Media Design
NAMM partner card 02Social Media Design
Brand cover photo 02Social Media Design
Brand cover photo 03Social Media Design
