Graphics on a pink cloud: the designers behind the visual identity of Playground

GRAPHICS ON A PINK CLOUD

THE DESIGNERS BEHIND THE VISUAL IDENTITY OF PLAYGROUND

Joris Verdoodt and Mathieu Serruys are the designers behind the visual identity of Playground. Including the striking afﬁche.

Beauty flaws as a source of beauty

Joris Verdoodt

Joris: "This is the fourth time we have had the pleasure of designing the visual identity of Playground. In 2019, we pitched for the contract and won. That was for three years, but the 2020 edition was postponed because of Covid. Our contract has now been extended for another year."

"When you design a corporate identity, you have to look for a recognisable form that the client can use everywhere: on the poster, in the programme brochure, in banners, in ads, in animated stories on Instagram..."

"The corporate identity is a translation of what the festival stands for. Playground's programming is very diverse, so there was nothing there that we could really pick up on. So instead we started looking for some kind of underlying attitude. For this edition, we took inspiration from the imagery of 80s video games like Space Invaders or Zelda. Back then, games were still a very young medium and we thought that was a fitting metaphor for Playground: a festival with a lot of enthusiasm for the new and unknown. That includes imperfections – beauty flaws, but they are at the same time a source of new beauty."

"There is a kind of glitch in the design, like a distortion. Again, that ties in with what Playground is: a place where artists can try things out, experiment. At the same time, we did not want to take this too far, you still had to be able to read the font. We went back and forth a bit about that with the organisation until we had a result we could all agree on."

How did you guys come up with the striking pink colour?

Mathieu: "We had started with ﬂuo-green but that looked too much like of video games in combination with the font, it was too obvious. But we did want a fresh, bright colour, and so we ended up with pink. There was one condition: the colour had to work on paper as well as on screen. We first composed the pink in RGB, a colour system for displays. Then we started looking for the equivalent in Pantone, which is a similar system for printing."

"If you look closely at the design, you can see that the letters and cloud-like shapes are made up of tiny computer characters. These come from DOS, the operating system Microsoft used in the 1980s. The letters and shapes were generated using software I wrote myself. You could say the software made them, not us. That is something else you can compare with what Playground does: the festival invites artists to come and do their thing, and in doing so, it nurtures art. That generative has inspired us."

Where do you begin with a design like this? White sheet?

Joris: "We both work quite intuitively. When you get an assignment like that, you let it sink in for a while. We have a lot of ideas in our heads anyway, things you say: I would like to do something with that one day - until an opportunity presents itself, like now. Mathieu is doing a lot of creative programming, and that's how he came up with the idea of those video games. We drew a design based on that. First for the poster, and then we also worked out the other carriers. This is about more than simply adjusting the scale and proportions of the poster. We always try to add some variations, the brochure is designed slightly differently from the poster and both are different from the banners. That is how you keep your design alive."

Playground lasts for four days. Isn't it frustrating that your design only lasts such a short time?

Mathieu: "You have to be able to live with that. We also have our portfolio: that's where our old work lives on. By the way: since we have an Instagram account, a lot more people see our designs than before." Joris: "Working for Playground is also very grateful work. Many festivals have their own house style, but they don't completely change it every year - at most, they tweak it a bit. Playground does change every year, probably because it is such an eclectic festival. There is a lot of people from the industry like artists, designers and curators attending. These have an eye for your design. It makes you happy when you get positive feedback from them."

Will you be going yourselves soon?

“Absolutely! There is a pleasant vibe at Playground - there is always something happening. Plus, we get to see the people of the organisation in real life for once, instead of just via Zoom (laughs)."