Amplify
Visual identity for music festival (fictive student project)
The brief
In the subject superstructure project, where we were able to choose our own design brief that would showcase our interdisciplinary knowledge and skills acquired during the entire bachelor programme. My design brief was to create a visual identity for the fictive music festival Amplify, a newly created festival.
Amplify wants to establish themselves as a forward-thinking and influential festival, advocating for and targeted against youth and young adults age 17–25.
Vision:
Become a significant influence on the culture.
Mission:
Organize an experience to be remembered, leaving the user wanting more.
Inspiration
The name
The festival name comes from the meaning of the word Amplify, which means to enhance something. At a festival, you experience many enjoyable things at once, which can feel quite intense. Everything is loud; amplified. Technically speaking, and amplifier is a hardware between a media player and a speaker, which is fitting considering the main event of the festival is the music.
The identity
The visual identity itself is inspired by this word and the warm sunset hues of summer. The logo is projecting upwards, quite literally amplified. So is the typography, which is stretched to highlight important information, such as the artist names. The color palette is a recognisable sunset gradient. Orange and blue are also complimentary colours that accentuate one another.
Topic emphasis
Design choices are rooted in Amplify's vision and target group specifically. Amplify wants to become a significant influence to be able to make a change and give back to the culture, and is designed for the new generation, which is often viewed as rebellious by the older generation. Movements that share the same rebellious wish to break norms and advocate for change are the artistic movement Art Nouveau (Jugenstil) and the cultural hippie movement.
Process
Typography and logo
The typography and logo was the first step in creating this identity. After some iterative tests, I originally went for Brevia as the logo font. Its rounded corners and strokes made it playful, but still serious. However, when experimenting with the typographic logo and finding the upwards motion as a fitting effect, I found the font not so fitting. Thats when I went back the my iterative tests and found back to Hobeaux, a modernised version of the original Hobo. With its curvy letters, it better complemented the shape.
Underneath is a simplified process, and the far right showcasing modifications made to have the logo appear more balanced.
Posters
When I had the typography and logo down, I started experimenting with poster setup, and color palette as I went. Posters are one of the most important mediums for a music festival, therefore a good place to start and later use as guidance for remaining mediums.
Final product
Photo of Billie Eilish by Alvin Santos. All rights reserved. Used with permission.
Photos of Karpe and Boy Pablo by Michael Ray Vera Cruz Angeles. All rights reserved.
Black is used to distinguish employees from crowd and press.
