For the Performa 2017 arts festival, I worked with Barbara Kruger, a participant in the year’s festival, to take her iconic style and craft into the identity.

One of the things we wanted to explore is where performance can intersect with elements outside the norm of the medium, and with graphic design and language in particular. Thus, ‘Performa’ is visually split into syllables, almost reflecting a diagram to speaking it out loud.

Carefully cropped repeating logotypes were applied to collateral allowing for easy, large-scale branding of the various performance spaces using existing materials.

Repeating diagonal patterns were also applied at a micro level throughout, using the 57º angle of the italic “7” as a guide, adding an additional axis of motion.

Text-level type was set in a special cut of Futura that offers many subtle typographic amenities not present in the standard Futuras, allowing for a quiet and crafted interior in materials – and giving space for the primary logotype to shout loud and clear.