An Ode to Joyland Tribe: Behind Joyland 2024's Key Visuals by The 1984
Designer: The 1984
Client: Plainsong Live
Scope: Key Visual
On May 2, 2024, the official Joyland festival Instagram page announced the blind ticket sales for the 2024 Joyland Jakarta. Adorned with colorful dancing figures, the team behind these key visuals is none other than Jakarta-based design studio The 1984. Employing motion design, animation, and The 1984’s particular specialty, risograph printing, the key visuals designed for this year’s Joyland Festival in Jakarta is an ode to the loyal crowd who return to the music festival each year. The 1984 is long-time collaborator Plainsong Live, organizers of Joyland Festival, having worked on the previous editions of the festival beginning with the 2022 Joyland Festival held in Nusa Dua, Bali.
Discussing the design process behind the festival’s key visuals with the GMK team are Irawandhani Kamarga, better known as Wanda, and Andreas Junus, Co-Founders and Creative Directors at The 1984. Andreas began to explain that unlike previous years, this year’s festival is leaning away from relying on cute characters as part of the visuals. “Maybe it's because the format of the festival event is also friendlier... So it’s welcoming for families, for those who still want to listen to all kinds of concerts and still bring their children along,” Andreas explained. “The [design] process for [the event in] Jakarta was also pretty cute. Previously, there were a lot of illustrated characters, but at that time we tried something a little different,” said Andreas. He further elaborated that The 1984 team went on to reexamine how far the Joyland Festival visuals could be pushed. “Where can we take Joyland? What are the characteristics of Joyland?”
After discussions with Ferry Dermawan, Co-Founder and Program Director at Plainsong Live, it was decided that the theme of the festival’s key visuals would focus on Joyland’s crowd. On the theme, Wanda elaborates,“So for Jakarta [this year], the idea revolves around the Joyland crowd, the Joyland tribe! Actually, maybe more precisely, we raised that theme because Joyland actually has a quite specific music spectrum. When we go to a concert, we can feel that, ‘Oh this is the music style for We The Fest, and for Pestapora it’s this style.’ Joyland started very small and is a very grassroots event back in 2013 and actually, we are already very familiar with the audience. Before I did work for Joyland, I was part of the crowd and we often met our own friends who have the same taste in music. So, if there is a reason why we raised Joyland crowd, this is an ode to the very loyal Joyland crowd."
The design of the key visual involved quite an extensive process. Wanda explained that animation was always at the forefront of The 1984’s conceptualisation. So the team aimed for illustrations that didn’t require the introduction of characters as well as a fun animation treatment of said illustration. Through Joyland’s socials, The 1984 team asked people to submit videos of themselves dancing. The team then roughly sketched around eight to ten frames of each video for each motion sequence. The frames are then translated into risograph masters and printed. Later these are put together to create the final animation. As of now, The 1984 team has created over 20 of these dancing risograph figures and counting. The use of risograph printing is also something that is very up The 1984’s alley. With their very own risograph machine in the office, 1984 had previously ventured into risograph based animation through the 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9, Flip Book! published by their own risograph publishing arm Binatang Press!.
Joyland Festival’s key visuals this year was born not only from The 1984’s understanding of the festival itself but also an understanding and appreciation of Joyland’s specific audience. The process of sketching the frames of the dancing videos as well as the use of risograph printing showcases a sense of craftsmanship that is particular to The 1984’s practice. The participation of Joyland’s audience through the submission of dancing videos via the #DanceToJoyland hashtag also strengthens their aim in uplifting the “Joyland Tribe”. The 1984’s deep understanding of the event and the community that surrounds it is something that can only be born from their long-term collaboration, allowing The 1984 and Joyland to grow and develop together resulting in visuals that truly reflect the spirit of the music festival.
