The music festival project served as the final assignment for my Color and Concepts class, intending to apply the design principles we studied throughout the course.The process began with extensive research into existing music festival posters, ranging from small local events to large-scale festivals such as Coachella, Outside Lands, and Electric Daisy Carnival (EDC). Through this research, I observed that successful posters often employed bold layouts, vibrant color palettes, and strong typography to capture attention and convey energy. Building on these insights, I developed a name and logo for my concept: NorCal Music & Arts Festival.
During the design phase, one of the primary challenges I encountered was selecting the main background color. With feedback from peers and my professor, I refined my options to three possible choices before finalizing the most effective solution. The completed poster featured a prominent festival logo, sans-serif typography for clarity, and a bold, vibrant background color. These elements worked together to ensure the design was both visually engaging and easily legible.
The completed poster featured a prominent festival logo, sans-serif typography for clarity, and a bold, vibrant background color. These elements worked together to ensure the design was both visually engaging and easily legible.
This project was particularly significant because it offered creative freedom while allowing each student to showcase their individual skills. It demonstrated my ability to combine research, conceptual development, and design execution into a cohesive final product.
These two images show the progression of my design process. I began by creating a bold, flexible logo that couples work across posters, signage, and merchandise. I initially started with a typeface in Adobe, then experimented with free transform and outline tools to shape it into the final mark. Because I wanted both the poster and the logo to feel bright and vibrant, choosing colors that complemented each other was one of the biggest challenges. This project also made me realize how much I enjoyed creating marketing materials, and it's a direction I'm excited to consider pursuing after my undergraduate studies.
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