Fringe Festival

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Project 1 Brief
Fringe Festival Item

Define:
A. the overall "personality" of your hypothetical fringe festival.
B. the demographic audience that your communication item will be aimed at.

These will act as a basis and a guide to the development and direction of your conceptualizing and designing.

Your design solution must include the following components:
1. Hero image
2. Fringe festival title
3. Text that states when the festival is
4. text that state where it will be - location

Format:
A 2-sided print item that is no larger than A3.
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As usual I'm going to rant on in my rationale and explanation but bear with me.

Rationale

I have decided to work this fringe festival as part of a reoccuring annual festival held in Melbourne called the O.M.F.G - Official Melbourne Fringe Getaway. This hypothetical fringe festival is held annually and encourages participation with regards to its yearly theme.

This year, O.M.F.G is promoting Wrestling and Theatre. The similarities between the two may be greater than one may imagine as both are brilliant art forms in their own right and both are performed in front of a live audience. Wrestling is essentially violence-infused theatre and hence the reason for O.M.F.G to combine and promote the two as a fringe festival.

The fringe festival item is a flyer that is handed out to the general public that takes the form of a mask that can be worn on both sides. One side is a pure graphical representation of a Lucha Libre mask fused with a opera mask to bring emphasis to it’s theme for this year’s festival, while the other side is a myriad of paint splashes with the event title and event information. This side signifies the colourful performances that is wrestling aand theatre.
The mask is deliberately designed to perform independantly, hence the public can decide which side to wear the mask on to suit their mood/personality. It functions as either a crudely stuck together mask, or a colourful mask.

It is a flyer, mask, as well as a promoter of the vibrancy of the arts.

Reflection

Coming up with a theme was the most tedious as it involved lots of brainstorming. Ideas that came to mind included a cosplay festival, a rugby festival, as well as a power rangers festival. However, I recalled a picture that I have came across that featured a mask made out of crudely stiched parts and conceived the wrestling/theatre idea.

The idea of making the item as “fringe” as possible was quite a challenge as well. I wanted the object, whatever it is, to function independantly on each side (2-sided printed item that is no larger than A3).

I wanted the item to be something practical in which the user could see as fresh and different and hence want to keep the flyer instead of just throwing it away. Given that Melbournians are relatively into theatre (based on the number of people catching performances every night), as well as how they like to spend quality family time (bringing their kids to fairs etc.) I observed that children then to be very receptive to something in which they can wear (a hat, glasses etc), thus the idea of a mask shaped flyer.

Coming up with an event title was also an ardious task because I wanted the title to be an abreviation that would attract attention. Something like SEX, but it’s too overused. My initial idea of WTF was to capture the attention of the youngsters as they are all very exposed to internet lingo. However, considering the actual abreviation (What The F...) and the feel of the festival, I decided to go with O.M.F.G instead. When read as is, it conveys the message of excitement (Oh My F...ing God!), while it also stood for the Official Melbourne Fringe Getaway. I thought both abreviations were very relevant to the annual festival which aims to be alternative, fresh, and very exciting.
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Hope that wasn't too much of a read.