#bculectures

[alishaoslerbcu]

Brief for Festival (Enterprise)

THE TASK:

You will create a new, independent festival that you feel passionate about organising, promoting and would attend if it took place. It could be a festival of music, food, design, books, beer, crafts, letterpress, or anything that you want to research and design for. In Week 1, you will identify a festival theme that you feel strongly about and find other people in the group interested in the same topic to share your ideas and research each week. In the following weeks you will be shown ideas in a series of masterclasses to help you apply the many graphic design skills and principles you have learnt in previous L4 modules to your ideas and final outcomes.

[alishaoslerbcu]

Visual experimentation that doesn’t work for the vibe of my festival but looks interesting enough to keep. From my perspective, it looks like it would be more interesting for more of a club/elite vibe. 

[alishaoslerbcu]

[alishaoslerbcu]

[alishaoslerbcu]

[alishaoslerbcu]

Coachella Music Festival

Poster 

A traditional set-up in the poster. The background makes it seem very colourful and almost futuristic? It is quite muted in colour, with the naturalistic illustration giving a look into the scenery of the festival. It is pretty minimal, but at the same time the name is able to speak for itself due to the brand’s popularity. 

What is it?

A music and arts festival that prides itself on being inclusive for everyone, regardless of sexuality, gender or race. The art installations it has are large-scale and put in place by big artists. 

Example: Dedo Vabo

As a festival, actualisation would be able to set itself apart from this as Coachella is more of an installation festival - similar to Park Life - whereas my festival is more about people creating the art themselves, rather than it pre-prepared. 

However, the general aesthetic of Coachella with the vibrant colours and the “expression” of people with their hair and make-up, which is a part that I have tried to incorporate into my festival. 

[alishaoslerbcu]

Naming (final countdown?)

Naming (final countdown)

I thought I had come to a decision about names as I had previously settled on imuse.

It took inspiration from my previous thought of simply calling the festival I (except it reminded me too much of V-fest) as in the individual experience and expression. I had also thought of calling it muse, but that brought up connotations of the actual band which was in no way connected to the brand. 

When I placed them together, I thought it represented my make-believe festival pretty well, to which others did agree. However, it was pointed out that it did seem like Apple with the iPhone and iPad, and my festival isn't technological at all, in fact it is kind of the opposite. Although with careful stylisation it could have potentially been avoided, I did also find that one other festival did share the name.

(stylised as IMUSE)

For this reason, I decided think further about what I wanted it to be called. Finally, I came to an answer: Actualisation. There is no other festival that I have found called that, and the meaning of it (to make reality) I thought spoke to my concept. Furthermore, I thought It linked nicely to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, and that desire we have to fully realise ourselves and our potential. A path of self-discovery. 

[alishaoslerbcu]

Tirana (a city of painted dreams)

A city in Albania (near Greece)

It used to be under communist control during the Cold War era, and as such much of the infrastructure was grey and monochromatic. They underwent a “makeover” as such, and had their buildings painted in new vibrant colours and patterns to illustrate their new direction and give more personality to the region. 

It worked well to the extent that it is now a major selling point for tourism.

The rainbow building

Others

Thoughts in relation to my project

This location was suggested to me by a tutor and I really like it. I enjoy how they have retaken their environment and reinvented it to express themselves currently. A blend of history and modernity. 

For my project, it would relate to my idea of decorating an abandoned building. There are quite a few parallels within my project and this - namely self expression in places. 

It has been suggested that my project could inadvertently be almost a counter to gentrification. In Birmingham particularly, with new infrastructure and construction, older ones are being taken down that have been modified by others creatively - particularly in Digbeth - and in that context I do appear to be against that. However, although I find this interesting, I’m not sure how far I would go with it considering my festival is mainly about self expression through creation. Although the shoe fits, I am still undecided as to where I would take it.