Pitchfork Music Festival
A concept identity and website for Pitchfork Music Festival Paris, built around the artists: the lineup becomes an explorable entry point.
- Personal
- Web
- Branding, Motion, UI
- Concept
- On a festival site, the lineup is often a static list of names, when the artists are the reason people come.
- Make the lineup the way in: every name brings up a portrait and a colour, and opens onto a page of its own.
Pitchfork Music Festival is held annually at Parc de la Villette, Paris, bringing an independent-focused international lineup curated by the iconic US music publication.
This project redefined the festival’s visual identity and digital experience around its core value: the artists. The redesign centers artist discovery, giving each performer dedicated editorial space and turning the lineup from a static list into an explorable, content-rich entry point.
It is a self-initiated concept, not a commission: an exercise in how far a festival site can go when it has one thing to show.
The lineup as the way in
The home page is the lineup. Artist names run across the screen in large outlined type; the highlighted name fills in and brings up the artist’s portrait and colour. Everything practical fits in one line under the names: the venue, the dates, and a link to the full lineup.
A second view sets the names one above the other, over a full-screen portrait. The name in the middle is the one in focus; its neighbours stay outlined above and below, and the day and time of the set sit in the corner. Browsing the lineup becomes a matter of moving from one face to the next.
Navigation is kept to three entries (Artists, Planning, Tickets), so that nothing competes with the names.
A page for each artist
Each performer gets dedicated editorial space. The page opens on the name alone, set as wide as the screen in the artist’s colour, above a black and white portrait.
Below comes what a visitor needs to decide: a short biography set in large type, the day and time of the set, the genres, and a link to the latest release. One screen, one paragraph, one action.
The page ends on the next artist rather than on a footer: a portrait card and “Discover next artist” keep the visit moving through the lineup.
An identity in three parts
The identity holds in three elements, so that it can take any lineup.
Type. One wide typeface, in two states: outlined for the names waiting their turn, filled for the one in focus. The state of the letters is the interface.
Portraits. Every artist is shown in black and white. Photographs from different sources end up belonging to the same festival.
Colour. Each artist brings a single colour, green for Björk, red for Slowthai, which tints their name and glows behind their portrait. It is the only colour on the page, so it always points to the artist.