Linking the Past to the Present
Punking is a vibrant dance style with roots in the West Coast underground gay club scene of Los Angeles. It is characterized by its multicultural influences and inspiration from its originators. The dance style birthed the first element “Posing”, then the second element “Whacking” which entails striking with force over all in Punking movement. Over time, “Whacking” evolved into a dance style known as Waacking.
It has been over 40 years (1979) since the Punking Originators visited Vancouver when they performed with Grace Jones, “On Your Knees” for a CBC Variety Show called "The Raes". The Punking and W*acking community in Vancouver aims to create new memories in Vancouver, beyond the lights, camera, and the Television Screen of CBC, as a form of a two-day dance event (June 9 and 10, 2023) inspired by the Zenith of Punking, Ginos II - an underground gay club in 70s Hollywood.
Visual Design Process
The team of three including myself gave ourselves six months to put this event together - the duties include but not limited to: administration, grant writing, sponsorships, event planning, location scouting, graphic design, copywriting and social media. I was in charge of the latter half of those duties.
Because of the many roles the team and I carry, I gave myself eight hours to build a mood board and to create a base language that is buildable over time. The collage-inspired work, black and white, DIY is intentional - these elements are historically used in Queer art-making as a way to destroy and redefine heteronormative signs and symbols especially during the 80s. The choice of typography was also intentional to emulate Ginos II's logo, juxtaposing it with other display and sans-serif type.
Colors, Textures, and Typography
I wanted to create a color story to start with black and white to refer back to the past and is a great base to frame collage-style foreground assets. I also want to signify older posters being replaced with new ones. Because of my capacity I utilized stock vectors and photographs and photo manipulated them to suit this project.
As for typography, I wanted to emulate the old Ginos II serif logo and juxtapose it with a hard edged, upper case sans serif. For a grungier effect, a display type was also added.
Physical Media: Print and Trophy
As per many grassroots dance events and contests, we utilized the design language to create print prizes and awards plaque.
Digital Media: Instagram Posts, History Presentation
Currently, Instagram is the best practice for grassroots-level event-organizing for the street dance community. With the base design language, I was able to utilize this social media platform as a place to play with storytelling, triptych posts, and organizing information:
Based on verbal responses from the community, they admired how straightforward, orderly, and appealing the information was conveyed, and how things are kept simple for easy scanning.
I utilized the design language for the workshop as well. Here are a few of the slides for preview. I gave myself a couple of hours to create the overall look, not including content planning and writing that I did.
Overall Outcomes and Future Plans
As an event overall, we were able to break even in costs and paid ourselves as organizers for the labour incurred to create this for the street dance community. We made street dance history as the first Punking-centric event in Vancouver with one of the largest workshops to date for this style.
Photo Credit: Boris Khramtsov
In the visual design front, I was able to create a simple design language in a short timeframe that is buildable over time with positive feedback. It also left a lot of space for adjustments to have more color, juxtaposition, and accessibility in terms of type choices for another Punking event within this series.
