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Vortx 2020 Event Experience
At a glance
Vortx is a socially distanced drive in experience encouraging festival goers to stay engaged through syncing performances to their car speakers, and being immersed under projections of visuals. The festival features emerging artists at the intersection of sound art, light, and technology, paying homage to the original 1967 Vortex Concerts by Jordan Belson and Henry Jacobs.
Team
Solo Project
Role
Brand & Identity
Event collateral
UX & UI design
Interaction design
Duration
Nov – Dec 2020
6 weeks
Identity inspired by how the history of sound, visual art and technology so often converged.
The identity plays on the fusion of different processes of creating—inspired by elements of early graphic computer art, organic and accidental nature of visual art, and vibrations and distortions characteristic of early sound art.
Early exploration of manually distorting letterforms
brand identity & guidelines
Reserve tickets, browse featured artists, and more on the event website.
Initial mid-fi prototypes exploring different layouts and flows for the event site.
Applying the identity to
digital and physical touch points
Brand & identity manifesting through the website's micro-interactions
Shaping a unique in-person festival experience within the constraints of a socially distanced world.
Performances take place under an open-air dome where participants can drive into designated spots and watch from the safety of their cars. The festival also features sound and light installations festival goers can drive through and experience in between performances.
venue, installation, and covid-19 information
Website updates during event to include livestream performances for those unable to attend in-person
Amplifying the in-car experience of the festival with a mobile app.
Initial mid-fi prototypes created from exploring information architecture of digital music, podcast, and video streaming products like Spotify, Audible and MoMA Audio.
How might we make the in-car experience of performances & installations more immersive?
Connect car speakers through bluetooth
Live main stage stations
Drive through installation tents with supplementary ambient audio and commentary by the artist of the piece.
How might we create a safer festival experience?
Contactless QR code check-in
Typical festival wristbands are replaced with personal QR codes allowing users to check-in to different areas of the events without rolling down their windows.
Postmates Integration
Allows users to order food and merchandise and have them brought to their specific parking spaces.
Reflections
I realized the importance of considering how an experience will fit within the context of the real-world.
My initial scope of the project ended up completely shifting as the COVID-19 pandemic had heightened back in October 2020. I couldn't ignore how the festival experience as we knew it would be completely disrupted by what was going on. These new challenges ended up pushing me to explore and experiment in every stage, and discover unique opportunities in the platforms I was designing for.
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