Coachella Music Festival
CLIENT
FOCUS
ROLE
TIMEFRAME
Visual Design Lead
2 Weeks
UI, UX, Web
Golden Voice
Project overview
I recently had the amazing opportunity to partner with the folks over at GoldenVoice, the production company in charge of putting on the infamous Coachella music festival in Indio California. Every year Mondo Robot puts a fresh coat of style on the website, and this year was no different. Being the Visual Design Lead on the project, it was my responsibility to distill and express the creative vision that would be manifest itself into the site for 2024.
Challenge
Collaborating closely with the client, I had to imagine a new aesthetic that captures the festival's ever-evolving spirit. Balancing innovation with user experience best practices, I aimed to create a website that not only looks stunning but also functions seamlessly, providing an immersive online experience.
Solution
To solve this challenge, I owned the process of defining Coachella's visual style, responsible for all concept, presentations and deliverables. This involved competitive analysis, gathering inspiration, ideating with the client, building interactive prototypes, and exploring live code solutions to ensure a fresh and engaging style.
Inspiration
At the project's outset, I kickstarted the creative journey by collecting inspirational material from the client, ensuring alignment with their vision. Building upon this foundation, I embarked on my own visual research by leveraging various tools and exploring current trends, in design and across and culturally relevant industries. Through analysis and synthesis I distilled the client's vision, enhancing it with innovative elements to elevate beyond the initial inspiration. This fusion of client input and independent research allowed me to craft a visually compelling and culturally resonant design for the Coachella website.
Visuals provided by the client helped us get a sense of what they were after, while kick starting the inspiration research process.
I then spent some time collecting and curating my own set of inspirational images that I felt reflected and pushed the vision forward.
Concept ideation
Building upon the gathered inspiration and research, I delved into the ideation phase, conceptualizing designs for two distinct styles: Neubrutalism and Summer Haze. Drawing from the avant-garde simplicity of Neubrutalism and the warm, ethereal tones of Summer Haze, I crafted visual narratives that encapsulated the essence of each concept. By exploring these contrasting styles, I aimed to offer the client dynamic options that reflected both cutting-edge design trends and the vibrant energy of the Coachella experience.
Neubrutalism is meant to capture the feeling and energy of live music, mixed with the excitement and good vibes from festivals and connectedness. Inspired by modern and avant-garde brutalist web trends, we wanted to push boundaries on what is conventionally expected from sites that receive high volumes of traffic.
Summer Haze is meant to represent the nostalgic feeling of the endless summer from our youth, with motifs that speak to live music over the generations of the festival’s existence. One of our favorite concepts was the retro VCR inspired layout with interactive touches like the right side nav and the background static overlay.
Final refined concepts
Presenting multiple design concepts in the previous phase allowed for dynamic collaboration and feedback with the client. Through this process, I refined the options down to two final concepts that captured the essence of the client's vision and brought us all closer to a shared vision for the site design.
Outcome
Ultimately the client loved both options, but favored Neubrutalism as the direction for the 2024 site. Having set the overall style and visual direction for the project, my work was done and it was time for me to hand it over to another designer as I transitioned to a new project.
Setting the style of the Coachella website was an exhilarating and fulfilling experience. Crafting the digital face of such an iconic cultural event was both a privilege and a creative challenge. It's not just about designing a website; it's about capturing the essence of Coachella's vibrant spirit, its fusion of music, art, and culture, and translating that into a visually stunning online experience. Being a part of this project allowed me to contribute to something larger than myself, leaving a mark on pop culture and music history.
