Soundset ’09

May 26, 2009 • 11:26 am • POSTED BY adamrgarcia

This year, I had the opportunity to author the visual identity of the Soundset Music Festival in Minneapolis, which took place last Sunday. The criteria were that it would be used on many different media, and it had to have a somewhat broad appeal (not specifically “HipHop,” since next year it would encompass more kinds of music). The largest challenge was that I was in Philly, and the event was a handful of weeks away in Minneapolis. That meant that I wouldn’t be there for a lot of the pieces that needed to be created, and that other designers would be rolling out much of the work for the event. From dozens of ads to web banners and sites to motion to apparel, this thing was going to have a lot of visibility, and I just wouldn’t be able to handle it on my own.

The solution was creating a straightforward, flexible logotype and usage guidelines for the event that the rest of the identity system fell out of. To capture the energy of the event, bright colors and energetic patterns and marks were created by hand as part of a graphic toolbox to accompany the logo. The logotype is based on squares (actually, boxes), and can exist with those elements, or used as a container.

The event was born out of a weekly night that Rhymesayers organized back in the late 90s. Then it was a night that showcased hiphop in the Midwest, as well as helped to cement the label as a mainstay in the Twin Cities independent music scene. Ten years later, and they’ve resurrected the event, turning it into one of the largest showcases of indie music in the country.

Check out the letterpressed event poster from Studio On Fire here. Photo courtesy Beast Pieces.

Most of the wayfinding and signage was made of graphics adhered to white boxes and stacked. Afterwards the boxes were used to collect recycling and carry leftover merchandise.

My homey Sims created the maingate sign based on the logotype and graphic toolbox. Sims is not only a man-about-the-toolbox, but a damn-good rapper.

Hanging mainstage banners.

Rhymesayer’s Brother Ali sauntering.

The elusive MF DOOM assails the crowd

The logotype itself is based on the square, which enables it to work in a modular fashion with the boxes. Also, the letters itself can become containers for artist photography in situ.

New York-based Def Jux label founder El-P

There were a dozen-or-so-thousand in attendance. Not too shabby.

Members of the Seventh Letter Crew came out from L.A. to do some live wall-rocking.

Soundset shirt graphics. The back graphics are a little too much for me, but hey.

Kickflippin’ at the 3rd Lair Skatepark skate demo

Slug of Atmosphere creates a lens flare out of his hand

Photos courtesty Rhymesayers Entertainment photo dept. (Jake Schaefer, Skye Rossi, Jules Ameel, Jeff Luger)
Thank you to Siddiq and Skye and RSE for the opportunity.

More pics at City Pages and the Rhymesayers Flickr page.