DI: What is the main principle, idea and inspiration behind your design?
: The main inspiration is the concept and location of the festival.
Insitu means "in place" and the concept of the festival is to show dance pieces created in relation to specific places along the waterfront in Queens, NYC.
Therefore the visual identity plays with dimensions in a typographic concept that puts words in a space, relating them to their surroundings.
The visual expression is inspired from the modern and playful architecture on the waterfront. The colours are inspired from the water and the summer weather.
DI: What has been your main focus in designing this work? Especially what did you want to achieve?
: I mainly focused on creating a visual identity that supports the concept of the festival being "site-specific", meaning there is an interaction happening between a public space, the architecture and the dancers/performers + audience. Also i focused on creating a visual language that supports the key words of the festival which is "Play", "Engage", "Create" and "Connect". I wanted the visual expression to be playful, dynamic, friendly, architectural and dimensional.
DI: What are your future plans for this award winning design?
: The festival will take place in the summer of 2017, so there is still a lot more designs to be made until then. After that the organiser is planning to bring the festival to other cities around the world, so the design will keep expanding and will be fitted to each edition of the festival.
DI: How long did it take you to design this particular concept?
: The design has been developed over a period of 6 months, but the first designs were already being published after 2 weeks work.
DI: Why did you design this particular concept? Was this design commissioned or did you decide to pursuit an inspiration?
: The founder of the festival contacted me because she knew i was already in the dance scene and i had experience with communicating dance through graphic design.
DI: Is your design being produced or used by another company, or do you plan to sell or lease the production rights or do you intent to produce your work yourself?
: The design is being produced and used by the festival.
DI: What made you design this particular type of work?
: I'm a dancer myself and therefore a lot of my clients come from my network in the dance scene. It's very meaningful to me to do this type of work because i get to use my knowledge as a dancer and as a designer at the same time, which means i am using my full potential.
DI: Who is the target customer for his design?
: Residents of Queens and New York in general.
New York based dance companies.
DI: What sets this design apart from other similar or resembling concepts?
: It has a unique and distinct typographic concept which makes the identity versatile and flexible, yet easily recognisable.
DI: How did you come up with the name for this design? What does it mean?
: The name of the design is the name of the festival. Insitu means "in place" and refers to the festival being about site-specific dance, meaning dance work created in relation to a specific place.
DI: Which design tools did you use when you were working on this project?
: Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe InDesign
DI: What is the most unique aspect of your design?
: The dynamic typographic concept and playful colours
DI: What are some of the challenges you faced during the design/realization of your concept?
: It was a challenge to create a design that appeals to Queens residents of all ages as well as dancers / choreographers, art enthusiastic New Yorkers, fonding organizations and sponsors / local businesses at the same time. I had to find the balance point where it's interesting to people who are already very artistically developed, but still approachable for residents in the naborhood with no big artistic interest.
DI: How did you decide to submit your design to an international design competition?
: I was invited by one of the jury members.
DI: What did you learn or how did you improve yourself during the designing of this work?
: This has been a design proces, where the design kept improving and expanding for a long time, even after the first design was published. I learned to accept a visual identity as a living being, meaning that it's never finished. It has a life and has to be constantly adjusted to the circumstances it meets.