Make Music Lagos

When I got the brief, I was stuck for months. I researched, sketched, pushed directions that felt close but none of the earliest iterations felt right. The people loved the previous year's identity but that put a lot of pressure on me. Then just as I decided to destress, I found magic. One evening I was on a bus with a woman sitting nearby who was wearing an outfit with some patterns, and shapes that immediately spoke to me, the kinds of shapes you rarely see in a fabric. I took a picture and when I got home I started extracting the shapes and exploring the possibility of building a typeface from them. That eventually became the display typography for the entire brand system that year.

We built the identity around a flexible system that could speak to multiple audiences across the country while maintaining its core character. The color palette celebrates the country's energy: the bold blues, vibrant reds, sunshine yellows, and fresh greens that run through African culture, agriculture, everyday life worked together to create a visual rhythm that felt both distinctly Nigerian and globally relevant.

Post-covid, there were many uncertainties which led to low event turnout and sales from 2020 to 2021. The goal for 2022 was to drive event turnout, and merchandise sales, and to do that effectively, I knew it was important that we get people excited to be a part of the festival again.

After the first visuals went live and we opened the store, we had our first batch of merchandise sold out in days, sales jumped over 70% from the previous years combined, the identity received special recognition from the UK World Music Day board and even won me a brand designer of the year award. Make Music Lagos then went from a growing local event to a recognised name on the global map.

Key Players:

Creative Direction/Art Direction - Bolutife Awakan;
Motion Designer - Oluwaseun Awakan;
Graphic Designer - Oluwatimilehin Sode;
Video Editor - Gbenga Owolabi;

Plus a team of 18 creatives across Nigeria.