Returning in an expanded role

I designed the poster, social assets, and motion work for the 2022 Same Same But Different festival at Lake Perris in Southern California (you can see that work here), and the promoters invited me back for 2023 with a broader mandate. This time, rather than executing within an existing visual framework, I’d be helping to define one.

Tightening the brand

A common pattern with independent music festivals is a looser visual identity in the early years — color, type, and texture variations that accumulate naturally as the event finds its footing. By 2023, SSBD was ready to bring more discipline to the system, and they wanted me to be part of building it.

Use the slider below to compare the pre-2023 logo with the updated version…

You can see how the new mark plays with the Lake Perris illustration in the static and motion lineup announcement posters below…

Setting the Scene

Location is part of a festival’s identity. Coachella without the desert or Lollapalooza away from the Chicago lakefront would lose something essential. Lake Perris works the same way for SSBD — it’s a beach party and a campground, remote enough to feel like a destination but connected enough to breathe. And with its techno-hippie atmosphere, the setting is a natural match for the genre-mixing sounds on the lineup.

When building the visual world for both 2022 and 2023, I wanted to present that location in its most heightened form. Warm and inviting, but with a touch of psychedelic vision quest to it. The weekend runs day and night, so the sun, the moon, and the stars all needed to be present. And with so many acts rooted in dancefloor culture, I put a disco mirrorball right in the sand of the lakeshore — a signal to anyone new to the event that there would be plenty of beats.