Curated by O’Keefe Reinhard & Paul and Vince Lawrence, #312SOUL is an unfinished retrospective of Chicago’s Black Music History.
Throughout the entire month of February — in celebration of Black History Month and in conjunction with 2020 being named the “Year of Chicago Music” by the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events — OKRP explored years 1955 through 1990 and the songs and sounds that emanated from Chicago’s South Side.
The Process
In January of 2020, OKRP invited me to Art Direct and Design the Branding, Social Content, and Web for their new retrospective series, #312SOUL. Set to launch the first week of February, there was no time to waste on this soulful and robust series. I started by breaking the design process down into multiple sections and prioritizing the content within the weeks/eras as they came.
I set out to create a presence that would compliment the archival material and evoke both an old-school and new-school aesthetic. To do that, I used vintage-inspired typography to add depth, plus, play tribute to analogue methods set in a digital world, and created a fresh color palette that felt reminiscent to the eras but with a contemporary twist.
Role: Art Direction, Design
Branding
Because we wanted to tribute the past and bring a fresh bold presence, the American headliner, Champion Heavy-weight, was chosen as the primary typeface for the #312SOUL logo. The secondary typeface, Pitch, was used for its typewritten effect and analogue nature, which felt very immediate and humble. For the secondary headline typeface, DRUK was set into the mix to bring a modern attitude with heightened contrast to our primary font, Champion Heavy-weight.
#312SOUL Home page
Era 1 Web page – 1955-1966
Era 2 Web page – 1967-1975
Era 3 Web page – 1976-1983
Era 4 Web page – 1984-1990
Thank you / Share Web page
While using the OKRP instagram page to promote #312SOUL, it was important to design a look/ feel that would separate its content from OKRP’s, plus, give it an immediate tone that something exciting and new was happening here. The solution was to frame all content within a bold black background to give off a vintage scrapbook / archival feel but in a sleek and contemporary way. A total of 22 original videos and 102 stories were created through-out the series.
Social Content Per Era: Thread + Stories + IGTV
Day 1 - Teaser/ Intro of ERA
DAY 2 - Featured Chicago Artist Video
DAY 3 - Soulstress Spotlight Video
DAY 4 - Featured Chicago Artist Video
DAY 5 - Playlist Video, Playlist Cover Art
Click each photo below to view each individual video.
Various stories from era 3 - All eras can be viewed through the highlights on the OKRP page
Era Playlists
Graphic Cover Art + Videos
