Cincinnati Music Festival Rebrand

Over the Summer of 2023, I did a full rebrand of the Cincinnati Music Festival. The festival was first held in 1962 and was called the Ohio Valley Jazz Festival. The current lineup consists of R&B, Hip-Hop, and Jazz, so I wanted to create logos and objects that reflect those changes.

Before I did any sketching I had to figure out the core values of similar festivals to know what my festival’s core values would be. I took note of the bold visual branding on my examples and compared it to the original CMF poster, understanding the room for improvement. I wanted to use the gradients and skylines of Rolling Loud, The bold text of Roots Picnic and Harlem Cultural Festival, and the logomarks of Al Green and Snoop Dogg.

After the conceptual stage and peer reviews, I recreated the best concepts in Illustrator in black and white. I colorized these recreations and added orange to the color scheme because I thought the original needed more contrast. Once the logo was complete, I began sketching wristbands, posters, and passes.

Once the logo was finalized I had to create six different contexts in which the logo and branding could be used. I made four street posters, five Instagram posts, three different backstage passes, three merch options, six wristbands, new visuals for the stage setup and a brand guidelines page.