a e s t h e t i c.
The SHINE Festival has been around for a long time, and with Orchard Road facing problems of late, I'm sure that these events would help spice up the place for the month of July. Here's a summary of the upcoming festival:
"Since 2005, the National Youth Council (NYC) has been lighting up the Youth Month of July with the SHINE Festival. The Festival is the annual high-point celebration of youths nationwide, showcasing their talents, promoting talent development and highlighting inspiring youth leaders and role-models.
The theme of this year’s Festival is “#OwnYourDreams, where youths are encouraged to take charge of their lives and to start standing up for what they believe in, to start believing in what they can achieve and to not be afraid to put themselves out there as they begin pursuing their dreams."
-SHINE Festival 2017
cool kids club
Like many events, the SHINE Festival has a standard logo but with each year, the visual identity changes, giving the next brand agency a chance to showcase their unique skills. The visual identities have always been trendy but not overly cliche, which is something businesses should take not of when trying to attract the young folks (please don't call your product YOLO, it's cringey).
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| SHINE identities over the years |
In 2015, the duotone look popularised by Spotify was the talk of the town, and SHINE followed suit by having a yellow/blue palette. In 2016, 3D and VR became the hot topics of discussion, so SHINE went with a skeuomorphic identity.
This year, SHINE appears to be going counter-culture with the vaporwave theme, except it is actually early to the party. Tumblr has long been a fan of these retro designs, and with top brands collaborating with Tumblr artists, these designs are slowly becoming mainstream. It is only a matter of time before the vaporwave aesthetic blows up again.
p a s s i o n
SHINE definitely knows how to create hype. I first saw this promo video via Facebook Ads, and have to admit that this was a positive surprise. If only all Facebook Ads were this interesting and well executed.
SHINE's talent development programme has 4 different categories this year: Arts and Media, Music and Dance, Sports and Gaming, Makers and Creators.
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| This is so a e s t h e t i c (Source) |
Each category is represented by a colour for easy future reference. Check out some of the recent promotional photos:
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| HI. (Source) |
If only we had more gifs instead of photos. I'd love to see flying space invader characters and boomboxes beating.
SHINE also released duotone posters which raises the issue of pursing the arts for a living. I won't post all of them here because you can see them on their Facebook page, but these are my favourite ones which really speak to me:
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| All aboard the feels train (Source) |
Very relatable indeed. It's a good thing that SHINE is focusing on these issues, because the creative industry in Singapore would be in big trouble if no one from this generation wants to be involved in the arts.
good design naturally attracts
Overall, this year's visual identity for SHINE hits the bullseye again for coming up with something unique and eye-catching. The youths of today are visual, especially with the popularity of Instagram and Pinterest, which pays close attention to design and aesthetics. It's a good thing SHINE knows this, because who would attend an event where the logo was made using wordart on Powerpoint?
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| Remember this gem? (Source) |
If there is something for businesses to take note of from SHINE's successful branding to attract youths, it's this: youths are attracted to good design. Heck, everyone is attracted to good design, but more so for youths in this digital age. So, if you are an SME selling youth products and looking to cut design budgets, please think again!
The SHINE Festival has not started and I'm hyped up, so that has got to do with the power of SHINE's branding and marketing. Once the festival starts, I can't wait to see more promotional materials from the event, and I just might have a follow-up post to this one ;)
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SHINE Festival 2017's visual identity is
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