Night Lights Denver
Night Lights Denver
Night Lights Denver supports innovative artists with an experimental platform, deemed "the people's projector", while also providing a free and unique public art experience. The experimental nature of the program required a flexible identity that could be applied dynamically both in print and in motion across buildings of all sizes. It is dynamic enough to catch the eye of the passing public and broad enough to support a varied and constantly changing group of visual artists.
Night Lights Denver supports innovative artists with an experimental platform, deemed "the people's projector", while also providing a free and unique public art experience. The experimental nature of the program required a flexible identity that could be applied dynamically both in print and in motion across buildings of all sizes. It is dynamic enough to catch the eye of the passing public and broad enough to support a varied and constantly changing group of visual artists.
PROJECT TYPE
PROJECT TYPE
Brand Identity
Custom Type
Motion Design
ROLE
Graphic Designer
Motion Designer
CREDITS
CREDITS
Client — Downtown Denver Partnership
Agency — Wunder Werkz
Photography — DDP, Erin Anderson
YEAR
2020
The Night Lights Denver identity was designed with motion in mind. From the beginning, it was clear that a project showcasing kinetic art required a similar brand response. Motion was not an afterthought, but an integral part of the design process.
The brand would be applied across a variety of aspect ratios and building shapes, requiring a flexible identity system that could live horizontally, vertically and anywhere in between. A strictly gridded logotype system ensured a strong relationship between letters no matter the layout.
In response to the challenge of implicating motion in static applications, the Night Lights Denver wordmark, a geometric sans serif, was designed in 17 weights, one for each letter. This way, the letterforms taper up and down throughout the wordmark, implying fluidity, dynamism and movement. The weight of each letter grows inward to preserve the geometry of each letter as well as their relationships to one another.
Facing a primarily digital application, the color palette developed as a four color gradient. The focus was on bright, eye-catching colors that transverse the warm and cold spectrum and would give the project a wide variety of color options with high contrast on various colored building facades. It is designed to make small changes in tone and color build as the day, season and lighting changes. In application, the gradient morphs and shifts as another motion touchpoint.
Static and motion advertisements play throughout the city's downtown on digital bus stop screens and billboards.
