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Harry BennettTIN’s identity for Rock Werchter channels the festival’s unrivalled atmosphere and 50-year legacy
Amsterdam-based design studio TIN have channelled the social and sonic energy of live music in their identity for one of Europe’s largest music festivals, Rock Werchter; decking out the four-day celebration with a punchy visual language that matches the unrivalled buzz of being there.
Befitted with a bespoke typeface designed in collaboration with Amsterdam neighbour Edgar Walthert, Co-founder Daan Hornstra tells us of the typeface’s deep dive into Rock Wechter’s almost half-century-long history. “In the 70s, Rock Werchter and a lot of other rock festivals and concerts were often introduced in the same characteristic way,” describing the aesthetic trend of stacked information set in tightly-spaced condensed typography – where designers used up all available blank space. “With RW Werchter, we wanted to respect and utilise Rock Werchter’s rich history and heritage,” Hornstra continues, “and created a custom quirky condensed typeface and used a similar stacking layout system to do so,” embracing the individuality, independence and free-spirited energy of the festival through RW Werchter’s unusual construction and architectural quirks.
Sitting alongside it, the italicised Bradford offers an equally characterful, yet pragmatic, structural support, similarly reflecting the duality of legacy and energy imbued into the former. “RW Werchter is quite bold and required a pairing with an additional font,” he details, “to make the overall appearance a bit more friendly and balanced,” opting for Lineto’s serif to provide as much. “It allows the brand to turn the volume down a bit,” Hornstra adds, a task quite contrary to the surrounding identity’s animated exploration of pattern, type and colour.
Recalling the design of Rock Werchter’s evolving, pulsating patterns, Hornstra explains that “even though the festival is called Rock Werchter, the festival presents all kinds of music,” more than only rock. “From incredible headliners to punk, pop, singer-songwriters, electronic music and everything in between,” he continues, “the patterns represent the incredible variety of all these different music genres and moods,” combining each pattern with a distinctive border style and colour pairing, resulting in a nostalgic, inviting vibe. “Together,” Hornstra concludes, “it creates an energetic and festive visual language that’ll probably evolve and expand during the coming years.”