TLDR
THE WORLD:
An annual Powwow hosted by the Cabazon Band of Cahuilla Indians, bringing together members of the community for in a shared celebration of tradition and culture.
THE RESPONSIBILITY:
Design an event program that honored cultural significance while serving the needs of the attendees, the Tribe, and the sponsored partnerships.
THE WORK:
Through immersion and close collaboration with the Tribe, the program was restructured to carry the energy of the Powwow itself while balancing education, orientation, and celebration.
THE OUTCOME:
What began as a simple cover update quickly blossomed into a fully reimagined program — one that the Tribe continues to use years later.
INTRODUCTION
The Cabazon Band of Cahuilla Indians hold an annual Powwow that brings together tribe members, families, and the broader community in a beautiful celebration of tradition and culture.
As the Tribe’s first Powwow following the COVID lockdowns, this project marked an important threshold for the celebration: a moment of return.
What began as a simple update the event program's front cover became an adventure to ensure the spirit, care, and cultural gravity of the celebration danced within the pages as well.
PART 1: THE WORLD & THE RESPONSIBILITY
The program cover itself was a straightforward task.
Past Powwow Programs followed an established visual tradition — vibrant, magazine-style covers featuring traditional dancers, rich colors, and natural textures.
For this year’s gathering, the Tribe selected a cover that honored that lineage.
As I prepared the program for print, however, something felt incomplete.
While the program was thoughtfully structured and culturally informed, its interior pages did not reflect the same level of refinement established by the cover.
The elements of the Powwow were present, but the energy and care captured on the front page were not yet sustained throughout the program.
With the Tribe’s blessing, we began exploring what it might look like for the program to do more than just inform but to carry the experience forward.
Part 2: IMMERSION & Stewardship
Having never attended a Powwow before, it was essential to close the gap before making any design decisions.
Our work began with immersion: reviewing archival materials, studying photos and videos from past Powwows, and visiting the Tribe’s cultural museum to understand the textures, symbols, and rhythms that were integral to their culture.
Two insights anchored the work:
The program served dual purposes: educating and orienting visitors while also honoring sponsor partnerships that made the event possible.
Movement, color, and texture defined every aspect of the Powwow experience — from the dancers' vibrant regalia to the rhythmic pulse of ceremonial drums.
These insights created clear boundaries: the program had to remain useful and navigable, but it also needed to reflect the vitality and significance of the culture it represented.
Our responsibility was not to reinterpret the Powwow, but to ensure the structure reflected what it already was.
Part 3: REstructuring the experience
In close collaboration with the Tribe and the in-house marketing team, we strengthened the experience by carrying the visual story through to the rest of the pages and into the structure of the program itself.
As the first Powwow back, it felt important to invite visitors to first understand the context they were entering before being asked to navigate it.
In the original layout, practical elements like maps, schedules, and historical context appeared first. In the redesign, the underlying structure was largely preserved, with subtle adjustments made to how the experience opened and flowed, allowing the program to better support and deepen the lived experience of the Powwow.
The structure unfolded as follows:
A full-spread introduction that carried the vitality of the cover inward, paired with a shared orientation to what a Powwow is and its cultural significance
The event schedule and guidance for newcomers
Educational context around Powwow components
Deeper information about the Tribe and their history
Sponsor and partnership advertisements
The venue map was relocated just inside the back cover — the next place we anticipated visitors would naturally look, based on familiarity with the original layout.
This restructuring preserved the program’s practicality while allowing its cultural presence to lead. The result was a piece that aligned more closely with the refinement, care, and poise carried throughout the broader Fantasy Springs Resort and Casino experience.
All interior pages of the redesigned program.
Conclusion
What began as a simple cover update ultimately became an exercise in stewardship.
By preserving what already worked and refining what needed alignment, the program evolved into something that could carry the Powwow’s spirit with consistency and care without losing its clarity or function.
Years later, the Tribe continues to use this structure and approach confirming that our work together found the right balance between cultural stewardship, practical utility, and shared experience.