A scroll down Maifest lane.

It’s inspiring to us that even after 12 years of the same assignment, our creative team continues to evolve and reimagine the promotion of Maifest, a traditional German festival celebrating the arrival of spring at a popular park in East Aurora, New York.

From plays on words to playing with German smoking dolls, we want to let you in on the creative process of each poster set and the personal styles of the creators assigned, given there are no brand guidelines to follow.

2014

Jeff Pappalardo and Matt Low were a particularly clever creative pairing. What started as joking about “jealous months” blossomed into the concept for our very first posters.

Festivals in June, August, and February simply couldn’t compete with the real deal. And to our knowledge, no one has tried to prove us wrong. Danke.

2015

Liz Mattingly and Jeff guten-tag-teamed this next one. If you know anything about creative director Liz, you know she’s the most excited in any room (or park). We see that in the bold language, vibrant color palette, and boisterous type treatment introduced here.

2016

Matt and Amanda Widzinski teamed up here. A pastel palette and whimsical illustrations are so true to Amanda’s “playful minimalist” style.

Conceptually, 2014 and 2016 have similarities. Matt must have still been hung up on protecting Maifest from frankfraudsters.

2017

Crazy what one letter can change isn’t it?

Speaking of one letter making big changes, Darryl Colling, or “D” as we call him, worked with Matt on this one. He’s got an edgy personal style which you see come out in the weathered type treatment and design.

2018

Can you believe this one was also Matt and Darryl? I think they may have been trying to justify that they deserved a Sunday off from spring chores.

This poster is softer for sure, (Darryl has range). But when you look closely, you see those rustic, weathered elements carry through.

2019

Nicole Reinard tapped in here with Matt. Nicole loves making things with her hands when she can. She literally made all of the beer wrapper origami at her desk. And Matt drank the beer.

Nicole also said these are totally inspired by nature at Spring Garden and not the new Hofbräuhaus Buffalo opening down the road from the office.Though doesn’t a little bock make for a good brainstorm?

2023

The spring revelry returned after a COVID hiatus! Katelyn Killoran, an illustration meisterin, teamed up with our scharf new writer, me(!), to remix the classic vibes passed down by the agency elders. Gute work, right?

2024

Hungry for fresh brat and ideas, Andalyn Courtney and I found these German smoking dolls on eBay and fell in love. It’s a more saturated space than you’d think.

Andalyn loves using interesting objects. Matt and I love writing scripts. And it turns out, everyone at Crowley Webb loves talking like German smoking dolls. So we started making some social video promotions in addition to our traditional posters.

2025

Uncle Jim (our building maintenance man) always says, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” So we didn’t. We ordered more dolls and wrote more scripts that won us an advertising award or two.

2025 was also when AI gained stride. Homemade sets, puppetry, and some silly singing was a much-welcomed switch.

2026

While figurines are fun, nothing beats the real deal. Andalyn and Matt both thrive on authenticity. They pressed tees, sourced brezeln and bock, and ran a delicious photoshoot right in our studio.

Gute lord, have we had some fun with this tradition. And the look back is a great reminder that when you allow fresh perspectives and personal styles to join in, great work will never kick the keg.

See you at Spring Garden?