Outfest L.A. is an LGBTQ nonprofit film festival.
For its 2021 edition, the first to take place physically after a year of remote programming, its themes were rooted in 'experience', 'reconnection' and 'emergence'.
I was commissioned for a key art option for its branding.
Outfest L.A. Key Art
IDENTITY DESIGN, ILLUSTRATION
CLIENT + PARTNER
Outfest L.A.
Damien Navarro (Executive Director)
Magali Virula (Marketing Director)
In merging queer theory with the medium of film, narratives become tools that disturb the notion of "normal", and can influence the experience of self-discovery, altogether empowering the individual as well as the community. Minding that festival goers' prolonged period of social distancing was spent interacting through mobile screens, the screen' element itself became a gateway of self-determination through queer cinema.
With this direction, the visual effect known as moiré, becomes handy, as it creates the illusion of static lines appearing to be dynamic when the image itself is scrolled.
A key art option with typographic overlays of the festival themes was developed, which also paid homage to the vibrant colours of the Pride Flag. The 'screen' motif was incorporated into the background as well as the foreground, becoming both a pattern and a meaningful compositional element.
In doing so, encountering the visual on mobile devices while hurriedly scrolling up or down immediately draws the viewer in, allowing the design to intentionally engage.
TICKETS
The design could be scaled down and adapted for digital prints of festival tickets (9x3 cm), and differentiated by adding elements in the composition, such as those of figures mimicking the Voguing dance form that features in queer community culture.
DIGITAL FABRIC PRINT on CANVAS TOTE
FESTIVAL GUIDE BOOK + SCREEN ELEMENT and TYPOGRAPHY IN LAYOUT
ALTERNATE DESIGN ITERATION
An alternative approach to the key art, which encapsulated the cultural and social diversity of queer stories. Visual cues were made with various elements referencing the Pride Flag colours, as well as the more current gender theory discourse.