Spring Music Festival
Creating the visual identity and branding for a music festival at the University of Washington.
Team
Team
Individual
Timeline
Timeline
10 weeks
Industry
Industry
UI/UX Design
Branding & Identity
Introduction
Introduction
Spring Music Festival is the culmination of design concepts taught in a course called HCDE 308 (User-Centered Design). I was tasked with designing the visual identity and branding for a music festival that would take place on the campus of the University of Washington, and the deliverables highlighted in this case study showcase the physical and digital products I designed to create the identity of this music festival.
Results
Results
The deliverables showcase visual principles, which include an interactive mobile interface prototype of the festival app, the festival poster, and wayfinding signage.
Competitor Analysis
We began this project by researching three music festivals and identifying their unique selling points and brand identity. In this competitor analysis, I explore three iconic Seattle festivals: Capitol Hill Block Party, Boo! Halloween, and Bumbershoot.
Competitor Analysis
We began this project by researching three music festivals and identifying their unique selling points and brand identity. In this competitor analysis, I explore three iconic Seattle festivals: Capitol Hill Block Party, Boo! Halloween, and Bumbershoot.
Main Findings
Main Findings
1) Provide a platform for local artists
2) Create & build culture within a community
3) Cohesive theme that reflects unique selling points & core value propositions
1) Provide a platform for local artists!
I incorporated this into my festival by including local artists (Sam Kim & UMI).
2) Create & build culture within a community!
To create & build culture within the Seattle community, I create a festival to serve as a space for Asian artists from across the globe to share their art with the Seattle community and allow Seattlebond over shared music tastes & experiences.
3) Cohesive theme that reflects unique selling points & core value propositions!
To create a cohesive theme and visual identity that reflected my unique selling points and core value propositions, I looked into popular aesthetics/themes in Asian culture, and kept a consistent color scheme, typography, etc., shown below!
User Persona
Next, I created personas to represent the unique situations, resources, goals, and scenarios of my target attendees.
The persona I chose to highlight is Nami. She isn't a UW student, and I wanted to focus on that to expand my audience beyond UW students.
User Persona
Next, I created personas to represent the unique situations, resources, goals, and scenarios of my target attendees.
The persona I chose to highlight is Nami. She isn't a UW student, and I wanted to focus on that to expand my audience beyond UW students.
Backstory
22-year-old live music enthusiast
Loves music & experiencing her favorite artists live & meeting people that have similar music taste
Her music taste is very broad, ranging from R&B to hip-hop to Kpop to indie to EDM
She tries to go to festivals ~2-3 times a year where she’ll go with a big group
Backstory
22-year-old live music enthusiast
Loves music & experiencing her favorite artists live & meeting people that have similar music taste
Her music taste is very broad, ranging from R&B to hip-hop to Kpop to indie to EDM
She tries to go to festivals ~2-3 times a year where she’ll go with a big group
Goals
Wants to see all of her favorite Asian artists in one place without having to go to a different state/only seeing one artist per event
Make new friends with others with similar music taste
Easily communicate/coordinate plans with friends through the app
Share treasured experiences with the people spent them with
Goals
Wants to see all of her favorite Asian artists in one place without having to go to a different state/only seeing one artist per event
Make new friends with others with similar music taste
Easily communicate/coordinate plans with friends through the app
Share treasured experiences with the people spent them with
Finding Inspiration
For my mood board (pictures shown above), I decided to go with softer colors, and included lots of pink, white/cream/light gray because this “shoujo girl” (shoujo is "girl" in Japanese; usually high school romance, fantasy, and action tales) aesthetic contains a lot of images of spring flowers, which is relevant to the name of my festival.
Finding Inspiration
For my mood board (pictures shown above), I decided to go with softer colors, and included lots of pink, white/cream/light gray because this “shoujo girl” (shoujo is "girl" in Japanese; usually high school romance, fantasy, and action tales) aesthetic contains a lot of images of spring flowers, which is relevant to the name of my festival.
Typography & Logomark
Because the name of my festival is spring, I used a tulip for the tittle of the "i" in spring. I also was inspired by the shoujo manga/anime, where serif fonts are frequently used.
From there, I chose the font, Kaisei Decol, which is designed similar strokes to Chinese characters used in Japanese writing. To maintain the cute and fun image from the header font, I used Gaegu as the body font.
Color
I wanted to convey the feeling of dreaminess, but with more vibrant colors, so I chose a complementary color palette, which features various tints, tones, and shades of light pink, light blue, and light yellow-gray.
Typography & Logomark
Because the name of my festival is spring, I used a tulip for the tittle of the "i" in spring. I also was inspired by the shoujo manga/anime, where serif fonts are frequently used.
From there, I chose the font, Kaisei Decol, which is designed similar strokes to Chinese characters used in Japanese writing. To maintain the cute and fun image from the header font, I used Gaegu as the body font.
Color
I wanted to convey the feeling of dreaminess, but with more vibrant colors, so I chose a complementary color palette, which features various tints, tones, and shades of light pink, light blue, and light yellow-gray.
Wireframes
My idea was to allow users to sync their existing contacts, as well as meet new people through the app for those who wish to at the festival, like Nami, my persona. From there, users can create group chats where they can send photos/videos, and see others' locations, if they choose to share their location in the app. I was inspired by iMessage/FindMy and the convenience of being able to see your friends' locations when you check the chat info.
Wireframes
My idea was to allow users to sync their existing contacts, as well as meet new people through the app for those who wish to at the festival, like Nami, my persona. From there, users can create group chats where they can send photos/videos, and see others' locations, if they choose to share their location in the app. I was inspired by iMessage/FindMy and the convenience of being able to see your friends' locations when you check the chat info.
Prototyping & Implementing Feedback
In my wireframes, I had a hamburger bar, but I swapped to a navigation bar and added more ways to get to each page upon receiving feedback that there were too many clicks needed to get to the chat and chat info pages.
I also added a friend map page with all locations that have been shared with the user (& the user's) to simplify the process of meeting up with friends during a festival.
Lastly, I made icons different based on which page users were on and added an info panel for the Friends Map page to give users a better understanding of the festival map.
Prototyping & Implementing Feedback
In my wireframes, I had a hamburger bar, but I swapped to a navigation bar and added more ways to get to each page upon receiving feedback that there were too many clicks needed to get to the chat and chat info pages.
I also added a friend map page with all locations that have been shared with the user (& the user's) to simplify the process of meeting up with friends during a festival.
Lastly, I made icons different based on which page users were on and added an info panel for the Friends Map page to give users a better understanding of the festival map.
Reflection
The quarter I spent on this project taught me a lot about design: this was my first design project and our final deliverables included a festival poster, festival signage & map, and a mobile interface.
Reflection
The quarter I spent on this project taught me a lot about design: this was my first design project and our final deliverables included a festival poster, festival signage & map, and a mobile interface.
Feedback and iterating is very important!
Feedback and iterating is very important!
I learned the importance of iterating on my designs; learning from others' critiques was very helpful and allowed me to improve my designs significantly. Without the feedback I'd received, specifically for my prototype, navigating the app would've been very tedious.