An Arrangement of Designs by POT for Rangkaian Irama
Designer: POT Branding House
Scope: Visual and Verbal Identity, Activation
Client: Irama Nusantara
Stepping into its tenth year preserving and archiving popular music in Indonesia, Irama Nusantara held their celebration event, Rangkaian Irama (English: arrangement of rhythm), to commemorate their progress over the decade. This event taking place from September 16 to October 15 is made up of an array of programs, from exhibitions, talks, discussion panels, to music festivals. Bringing in POT Branding House, the visual identity of this event was designed by marrying both a celebratory and thorough impression.
‘Bayu Rengga, Creative Director and Strategist at POT Branding House mentioned that they became involved with this project following an appointed pitch. Bayu himself acknowledges that POT tends to avoid pitching. However, as they had been invited by Irama Nusantara, the offer and opportunity was impossible to turn down. At that stage, POT was asked to create an idea and rough visualization in response to the Irama Nusantara’s decennial celebration. The scope of work encompassed visual identity, event naming, communications, as well as event activation.
Consistent with POT’s method and work process with other commercial projects, research was the starting point as well as the foundational base in the development of ideas. Through a thorough review of Irama Nusantara’s archives and the core values of this celebration, POT found that the archival process and the celebration program to be held is more than just nostalgia and romanticism of the past. Instead, the event is oriented towards the future. This finding became their takeoff point in finding the right visual form. The circular pattern derived from black vinyl plates was chosen to represent the relevance of the past, present, and future in the context of music. The circular black vinyl plate logo was then further developed into design derivatives, like program logos with communication forms appropriate to the event’s context.
Wicky Syailendra, Creative Director at POT, explained that the circular pattern was then developed with a mix and match of the bitmap forms and whole curving circles. According to him, said element represents many things from the digitization of the archive done by Irama Nusantara to a symbolization of the journey of music in the past which has become more actualized and closer in the present with increasing accessibility. On the matter of typography, the POT team chose a serif font to represent Irama Nusantara's character which is ingrained with a retro feeel met with a condensed font for a more modern and timeless impression.
Meanwhile, red, yellow, and blue used as primary colors are combined with a black base to present an exciting impression. These colors were also used in Dari Ngak Ngik Ngok ke Dheg Dheg Plas, which was published by Irama Nusantara together with Binatang Press!. The contents of said publication were displayed in an exhibition of the same name also as part of the array of the decennial celebrations.
The visual approach chosen by the POT team successfully offers nostalgia without aging the design. The choice to use non-slang Indonesian diction in the naming of the overall event as well as all the programs encompassed added to that distinct Nusantara character. Even the color palette used can be considered an apt visual representation to present a sense of elation while simultaneously staying in line with the range of both digital and print needs. Rather than falling into cliches by using the musical scale or notes to symbolize music, POT presents something refreshing by choosing to use soundwaves and bitmaps to represent said elements. Overall, this design successfully illustrated a distinct Indonesian-ness as well as Irama Nusantara’s identity as the event host.
