OVERVIEW

SWU is a Bristol-based radio station known for its long-lasting underground presence, initially established as an online forum in the mid 2010s. The brief was to develop a hard-hitting visual identity for a SWU day party showcasing the best of South West’s underground music scene.

Research began with an investigation into what SWU was all about. Having begun as a relatively niche underground music forum, it then developed into a grass roots radio station before being bought by Rinse FM — although still, SWU remains largely out of the realm of big management and the mainstream. Following this, the identity design needed to feel grassroots, loud, and unpolished. This is where the use of graffiti came in. Alongside this, I also wanted to make the SWUFEST identity somehow fit within the existing SWU brand, which was albeit limited. So, after investigating the existing brand visuals, two things stood out to me, which was the bold typography and distinctly circular logo, both things that I attempted to push to the forefront of the identity design.

One of the primary goals from a strategic stance was to make the branding shout at viewers through graphics alone. This was to both reflect the prevalence of heavy dance music genres like dub and jungle commonly featured on SWU, and to immediately engage anyone viewing the marketing materials. This idea of volume and intensity then easily led itself to motion design. Motion could be used to visually reflect the pulse of a song or the heavy kick of a dub track, either making things momentarily expand beyond its usual shape, bounce or vibrate. I also decided to utilise only two colours for each asset, in order to make reference to rave flyers which typically use duotone printing.