Mother Design has crafted a visually striking identity for a significant comedy festival in Los Angeles, embedding the spirit of the city and the comedy event. The design beautifully mirrors the festival’s mission to spotlight local talent and promote a laugh-filled environment.
The landscape of comedy consumption is rapidly evolving, with streaming platforms enabling edgy humor to reach a larger audience. This shift is opening doors for comedians to push boundaries and expand their comedic creativity, leading to a fresh wave of performing talent.
Responding to changing viewer preferences, service providers are investing heavily in comedy. Evidence of this trend is the creation of an annual comedy festival that launched in 2022. This festival, showcasing over 300 shows in 35 locations and featuring famous comedians, has played a vital role in making comedy more accessible and diverse.
Mother Design was given the task of designing the festival’s 2024 visual identity. Their approach, taking inspiration from LA’s pervasive sticker culture, resulted in the creation of a self-branded design system named humorously “Slap, Stick”.
Crafting LA comedy festival’s striking identity
The resulting visual identity was both playful and expressive, resonating with festival-goers as a unique representation of the event’s LA spirit.
Elliot Vredenburg, Mother Design’s Associate Creative Director, delivered an innovative design method that merged Swiss modernism and a price tag gun, creating a design system that reflects the festival’s unique spirit. The combination of sleek, modern lines and unexpected levity established the event as an irresistible part of LA culture and redefined it as “the world’s largest laugh”.
Betsy Dickerson, a copy lead at Mother Design, successfully infused LA’s vibe into the project. Their team’s effort brought humor and fun to the typically serious graphic design field, capturing the festival’s spirit. Notably, their innovative approach connected simplistic design with vivid imagery, highlighting the importance of effective visual communication.
Through the blend of colorful illustrations and playfully distorted typographies, Betsy extended the reach of the comedy festival. She cleverly pieced together different design elements, creating a relatable tale of humor and creativity. This outstanding result encapsulates the essence of the comedy festival and encourages an environment of interaction and engagement. In conclusion, their work sets a new standard for creativity in the graphic design industry, offering a glimpse into a future filled with vibrancy, humor, and disruptive innovation.
