CRAFT / DIGITAL / IDENTITY / MERCH / PRINT
ROSKILDE FESTIVAL
The identity for Roskilde Festival 2017 came out of the festival's graffiti culture – and started with a gradient we sprayed by hand.
For Roskilde Festival 2017, we drew on the festival's long connection to graffiti and DIY. The centre of the whole identity was a single hand-sprayed gradient: aerosol paint on soft billboard paper, fading from white to deep black through thousands of sprayed dots.
We called it The Citizens Gradient. Roskilde is Denmark's fourth-largest city while it's standing, and from a distance the sprayed surface starts to look like a crowd seen from above – the density and movement of people packed in front of the Orange Stage. We made the original backdrop by hand in the festival's graffiti area, filmed it on site, then photographed and digitised it for the rest of the identity.
PAINTED BY HAND, BUILT INTO A SYSTEM
We didn't fake the effect digitally. The identity was built from the real thing, which kept the grain, the softness and the unpredictability of sprayed paint. The making was public, part of the festival itself, and it became a short concept film for that year's identity.
From there the gradient ran everywhere: posters, programmes, digital campaigns, large banners, ads, signage, and the official wristbands. Set against each stage's own colour, the sprayed texture held up whether it was printed huge or rendered sharp on screen – always, unmistakably, Roskilde 2017.
