South Texas Jazz is a collaborative that performs under various monikers with different size ensembles. Austin-based FÖDA Studio created a dynamic identity system that allows for variation, improvisation and expansion and gives the client the ability to create the parts they need—it literally embodies the nature of jazz improvisation.

Western key signatures have seven notes (and an eighth octave that repeats the first). A heptagon represents the seven-note scale; taken apart, each triangle is an individual note. The triangles can be configured into nearly infinite forms, signifying modal sequences in music. Three of these modes resemble the letters S, T and J and are used as the root of each set of configurations. Any given mode can be overlapped with another and each component can be color-coded at will to expand or collapse the identity based on promotional need. The system intentionally allows for eye-balled placement of forms and works on two simple proportional guides that are included in a comprehensive graphic standard package that sets all the rules for typography, color use, image use and overlapping.