As we honor the best in art and design this past year through the 2026 PRINT Awards, we’re also reflecting on PRINT Awards of yore and our many wonderful winners over the years. Today we’re highlighting Guerilla Suit, the Austin-based branding agency that took home first and second place in the Branding Campaign category of the 2025 PRINT Awards, for the identity they created for SXSW 2024 (first place) and the branding they developed for the Austin pizza joint East Side Pies (second place).
But what have these award-winners been up to recently? Check it out below!
Your branding for SXSW has been recognized by the PRINT Awards several times. How does your team maintain this level of excellence and continue to create fresh identities for the same client year after year?
With SXSW®, the assignment has always been to make the art and its complex system feel like an entirely new experience each year. It’s no small feat, but we have an incredibly talented team that genuinely loves a challenge. We approach the SXSW® key art with fresh eyes every time, while staying anchored in the humanity of the base brand and its core values of collaboration, inspiration, and creativity.
Process is a huge part of how we sustain that level of reinvention. We begin with a deep dive into what’s shifted culturally and visually since the previous conference, using those insights to open up new creative territories. Together with the SXSW® team, we align on themes that feel both optimistic and predictive, speaking to where the world, and the event itself, will be months in the future.
From there, we explore multiple creative directions inspired by technology, culture, art, and the unique energy Austin brings to the event. Our team tests visual languages, motion systems, and color approaches that ladder back to the brand’s DNA. This exploratory period is essential; it’s where we give ourselves permission to play, break rules, and push the boundaries of what SXSW® can look like.
Because the brand touches so many surfaces, from stages to way-finding to digital environments, ongoing collaboration with the SXSW® internal team ensures the system is both creatively bold and functionally adaptable across the entire conference ecosystem.
Ultimately, excellence comes from treating each year as a completely new brief. We never rely on past solutions; instead, we ask what emotional and creative experience the upcoming event needs to deliver. Pairing that mindset with a rigorous, iterative process allows us to create key art that feels distinctly SXSW® yet distinctly new, year after year.
What was it like bringing the SXSW 2025 system to life? Will you be working with SXSW again for their 2026 brand identity?
We had the pleasure of partnering with SXSW from 2021 to 2025, but for 2026, the organization decided to move in a different direction. Even as we were finalizing the 2025 artwork, we could sense a shift on the horizon.
That said, the 2025 challenge was an especially fun one for us. Working on an ~18-month schedule, we kicked off the Austin artwork in late 2023, around the same time SXSW® launched in Sydney (its first international expansion) and ahead of the upcoming addition of SXSW® London. With three international events now overlapping in promotion and key art, we knew the Austin edition needed to stand out.
Our approach doubled down on a distinctly Austin vibe, revisiting the city’s roots while always looking to the future. Inspired by surreal show posters from the days of Armadillo World Headquarters, the 2025 concept captures Austin’s eclectic charm, idiosyncratic allure, and forward-thinking energy. Psychedelic and playful, it channels the city’s spirit of nonconformity and rugged individualism, signaling optimism and creativity while preserving SXSW®’s distinctive identity.
It was a great note to go out on: celebrating a creative partnership that captured the spirit of the city we love.
What have you been up to at Guerilla Suit since taking home first place in last year’s branding campaign category for your SXSW 2025 brand identity?
We’ve been keeping busy with a number of hospitality and hotel projects across the South.
One highlight is The Albert Hotel, a boutique property in the Texas Hill Country, where we had the pleasure of designing all of the hotel’s touch points as well as all of the F&B experiences on-site.
On the beverage side, we’ve been collaborating with Merit, a San Antonio-based coffee company, and supporting Rambler Sparkling Water as they expand into new markets across the country.
What are some other recent Guerilla Suit projects that you’re particularly proud of as an agency?
We’ve had a lot of exciting projects in the works lately. Most recently, we completed work with a large global hotel brand, which will be unveiled soon. We can’t wait to share it when it goes live.
We also partnered with long-time collaborator Academy Sports + Outdoors on a Texas Tailgate-themed, limited-edition co-branded collection of apparel and gear featuring the iconic Whataburger brand.
There’s plenty more exciting work happening in the studio right now across CPG, events, and hospitality.
On a personal note, we celebrated a milestone this summer: our shop turned 15! To mark the occasion, we gave ourselves a little rebrand and launched a new website, refreshing our identity as we step into the next chapter.
Feeling inspired? Apply to the 2026 Print Awards now!
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