Summerfest collaborates with MIAD Lubar Innovation Center

This year, Milwaukee Summerfest partnered with the Lubar Innovation Center at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design (MIAD) to design the 2025 lineup poster.

Kai Kilgore ’25 (Illustration) and Xander Maxwell ’26 (Illustration – Animation Track) were hired by the Innovation Center to iterate and produce Summerfest’s poster. After considering both designs, Summerfest moved forward with Maxwell’s space-themed poster.

Xander Maxwell, “Summerfest lineup poster,” 2025.

Maxwell says, “Working with the Innovation Center is always great. The opportunity to get work experience as a student is one of the most valuable things I have experienced at MIAD. I feel like all of the projects I have done have really benefited me as an artist while also pushing me to make great work. Being able to put actual work in my portfolio is a great thing that would benefit anybody.”

“Working with the MIAD Lubar Innovation Center on this project was an exceptional experience from ideation to completion,” says Jerrod Woods, Senior Director of Marketing at Milwaukee World Festival, Inc. “Their professionalism, creativity, and passion made this collaboration an unforgettable experience. We look forward to finding more ways to work with the Innovation Center in the future.”

Learn more about MIAD’s Lubar Innovation Center!