TORONTO JAZZ FESTIVAL
DESIGN
Communication
Branding
SKILLS
Creative Direction
Research
Visual Design
Ideation
Editorial Design
TOOLS
Illustrator
InDesign
Photoshop
◯ The Toronto Jazz Festival is a well-acclaimed, annual summer event with a growing audience and incorporation of new music styles. The goal was to create a cohesive brand identity and visual language that evokes the jazz theme in a modern and innovative way. Therefore engaging the casual passerby while still intriguing the festival’s loyal audience.
ABOUT THE PROJECT
THE PROJECT:
While the Toronto Jazz Festival is well-acclaimed, its branding, although traditional in its design, is a bit outdated and does not reflect the tone that the festival aims to convey today. With its incorporation of new genres into the Jazz festival such as R&B, Soul, Hip-Hop, and Gospel, the branding does not visually communicate its change throughout the years; nor does it create visual intrigue to reach a broader audience; a main goal for the festival. To create a whole branding system for the festival, posters, tickets, a program, and merchandise were made.
PROCESS + CONCEPT
THE PROCESS:
The process began through extensive research of the festival - analyzing its roots and its intentions and past designed ephemera. Exploring its target demographic heavily influenced the final design. It was important to redesign the brand identity to be inclusive of its broad demographic which continues to expand every year. Several graphic approaches were made to refresh the identity. From the outcomes, an abstract identity felt as though it had the most potential to translate into other mediums most successfully and had strong components which could expand the visual language. Expanding the existing colour scheme to incorporate black and white imagery with the bold red emphasized the overall modern feel.
Incorporating the main vector graphic into other mediums as well, created a recognizable and unified identity.
THE CONCEPT:
The concept for the brand identity was inspired by visual and thematic nuances within jazz and its culture. The aim was to reflect the event and its incorporation of new music styles (such as R&B, Funk, and Hip-Hop) in an innovative and abstract way meant to spark conversation and engagement around the event. The graphic within its main identity is meant to reference the ends (bells) of many brass instruments common in jazz. This identity was to be applied through print and digital mediums with its poster having the ability to be viewed in a horizontal or vertical orientation.