NXNE Wins Major Design Award for 30th Anniversary Branding

NXNE’s 30th anniversary is being celebrated with a new award.

This week, Canadian design agency Frontier received the Registered Graphic Designer (RGD) Element — Digital Award for crafting the homegrown music festival’s 30th Anniversary branding.

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The RGD Branding Awards celebrate the best in branding and identity design from around the world. The Element — Digital accolade rewards any design that uses technology, data and digital platforms to communicate, including websites, apps, social media, XR and more.

For NXNE’s milestone year, the multi-day fest returned to its roots — focusing on the experiential dynamics of live music. Frontier developed a music visualization tool, built from scratch, which generates a multimedia language in which the music is not only heard, but seen and felt.

Under the direction of founding principal Paddy Harrington, creative director Tristan Marantos, designers Antoine Balouka-Chadwick, Yiğit Toprak, project manager Rhiann Moore and performance photography by Cue Video, the company created a visual ecosystem designed using the sounds of the festival.

Frontier developed unique branded visuals for artists, using their music as the input, and they were given access to a custom version of the visualizer to create their own promotional assets. The sounds were turned into visual elements, with photography pulsing to the beat of showcasing artists' own music.

The phrase “Sound On” was a major part of it all, encouraging music fans and passersby on Toronto streets to tap into the world of NXNE.

“The judges felt that Frontier’s identity for NXNE excelled by turning the energy of the in-person live music festival into a visual, digital experience," says Hilary Ashworth, executive director, Association of RGD, in a statement to Billboard Canada. "By building a custom system that generates visuals from each artist’s sound, Frontier created an identity that’s representative of this lineup, this context, this moment in time: a present-focused mindset that’s integral to the live music experience."

She continues: “Their choice to provide artists with a shareable version of the visualizer demonstrated their thoughtful process and strong understanding of how effective digital promotion today requires customization and authenticity.”

Frontier

To celebrate NXNE’s 30th anniversary, the festival organizers cemented a new partnership with Billboard Canada with some major one-of-a-kind events and shows, including Daniel Caesar, Khalid, Roy Woods and The Beaches, plus emerging talent Ruby Waters, New Friends, King Cruff and more

See Frontier's NXNE design work here.