Blog

Festival Disruption

September 9, 2016 Event Graphics, New Work

 

FA-Teaser-Covers

 

FringeArts partnered with Masters Group Design for the 8th consecutive year to craft a memorable and distinct look for their 2016 Fringe Festival.

The Festival’s world-class curated presentations never conform to a shared mood or theme but, this year, many present dark subject matter that can make audiences a bit uncomfortable and inspire questioning and discussion. Our goal was to evoke a similar interactive response by creating a visually uncomfortable graphic approach that compels viewers to question and give it a second look.

Drawing inspiration from conceptual artists Sol Lewitt and Douglas Coupland, we used a limited palette of black and white and composed spliced type and severed stripes to articulate disruption and discomfort. This fractured approach underscores the overall “convention smashing” stance of FringeArts. It also opened up lots of opportunity for visual diversity throughout the guide and promotional materials.

The result was a shifting word mark that mimics the nuances of performance, with parts seemingly moving from foreground to background. Thick, high-contrast stripes help accent the rifts. On glossy surfaces such as the guide cover and bus shelters, the rich black background captures reflections and dramatic glares from the surrounding environment which add unexpected layers and dimension to the pieces.

Below is a sampling of materials: festival mark, festival guide cover/spreads, web page, teaser mailer, t-shirt, and bus shelter — plus proposed banners and postcards.

 

16-Guide-CoverLiveSpreadTOC-Spread FA16Spread1GalaSpreadPandSpreadFA16-Spread-3MSpread

FestivalWebPageteaser-suite-bFA-T16BuShelterFA162016FringeBanners2016-Fringe-Look-File