Responses by Marshall Rake, cofounder/creative director, Public-Library
Background: Red Bull Music Academy is a globally recognized program and festival that plays an important part in developing the next generation of musicians, as well as creating unique experiences for renowned artists to perform in ways they never thought were imaginable. With our own city as inspiration, we created a design system and art direction that captures the festival, the energy of the city and the creative renaissance.
Reasoning: Los Angeles is the point of convergence between the real and surreal. We wanted to create imagery that portrayed familiar artists in an unfamiliar way, as well as introduce new acts with the same irreverence. The posters are paired with a traditional typographical system that drives tension and constructs a framework for both the imagery and voice to run wild.
Challenges: Creating a cohesive visual art direction that represented each artist and performance of the festival programming.
Favorite details: Music festivals tend to have a very traditional and similar execution. Rather than approach this challenge with that mindset, we attacked it in the same way we would with a fashion campaign or collection.
Anything new: Being able to have insight and a voice in those collaborative decisions was fantastic and really allowed the creativity to flourish.
Time constraints: A timed event has very strict deadlines. The curtains were drawing on a specific day for a specific event, which forced us to make everything fall in line. Having those unmovable deadlines helped move things quickly and we had a great collaboration and pace because of that.
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