Development of the idea

When thinking literally of the event name 'Light Night', the first thing that came to mind was the everyday fluorescent light bulb. Used everywhere, the long strips of light are a more industrial interpretation of the event.

Being that the Night has a festival like atmosphere, ferris wheels also came into mind.

Combining these to interpretations together was aimed to produce a logo that represented a snapshot of the ferris wheel in motion. However the logo is relatively unrelated to what Light Night represents.

One of the unique aspects of Light Night is the breadth of the event across Leeds. Rather than just focusing on one specific public space in Leeds, Light Night is spread across into different zones, giving visitors a range of different attractions. To create more relation between the logo and the event, placing the logo over the map demonstrate the extent of its reach.

By removing the strokes that don't cover the map, the logo now has a function by demonstrating more explicitly how Light Night is spread across Leeds.

However the logo itself has to have a pleasing aesthetic quality in order to attract the viewers interest. Reduction of more strokes simplifies the logo to its core message whilst making the logo look visually lighter. The simplified logo shows a better relationship between the strokes and the negative space in its design, creating a more aesthetically pleasing design.

Thinking even further, the logo's function can be applied for real world usage. The logo can be lit through a buildings window and onto the road. By doing so it informs event goers of where other areas of Light Night may be. Therefore the logo now has a more informed purpose in relation to the event.

When turned vertically, the logo better represents the concept of both the fluorescent tubes and ferris wheel whilst the removal of the extra strokes creates the illusion of movement.

Presenting an initial mockup of the poster to feedback, there were comments that it still felt static and not developed enough to capture the atmosphere of Light Night. Despite a relatively valid concept for the logo, the overall composition felt too reserved for something that is meant to be celebratory.

To help communicate that sense of movement even more, each subsequent stroke becomes proportionally thinner in width, whilst the fading in colour adds depth and helps create the illusion that the logo is spinning.

In terms of the poster's composition, the logo is the main focus of the design, with the copy serving as a functional purpose of informing the reader of the event details. This has been informed by reading on Josef Müller-Brockmann's understanding of poster design.

To have the logo more representative of how we see lights at night, the bars were turned into shapes to replicate long exposure photography. Each line of the stripe is symbolic of a lightbulb being 'dragged' along a long exposure photo. Unintentionally this has created a 'tube' within the centre of the logo that creates an optical quality that is very much like the optical experience Light Night is all about.

Rather than using plain white stock, an off white paper creates 'depth' for the poster. It is a softer colour that contrasts against the rigid logo and is reminiscent of older poster designs. Given that Light Night is about conceptual art installations, the grey colour scheme represents the idea to screen print the design onto tracing paper. The translucency plays on the characteristics of light being able to shine through.