ABOUT

Background
Kilimanjaro Live are a London based live entertainment promoter. With a roster of acts like Ed Sheran & Metallica, they also have a strong focus on the nurturing of new talent.

The Brief
To create a style of advertising to promote new artists playing shows in London.

The Audience
2000 or so 'early-adopters' & 'influencers' within London's music scene.

The Creative Idea
London's music scene is booming and as a result it is awash with flyers & posters. This is a very tough & crowded market, so I needed to create something nobody else was doing.

Selling bands that nobody yet knows?
The client was insistent they didn't want to build a new brand. Instead I focussed my attention on traditional forms of advertising - the use of a headline. I knew from history that there are certain shows people still talk about. The Sex Pistols playing Manchester a year before their debut album is now infamous. People who went are still saying "I was there!", whilst the rest of us missed out. All the major acts we know now played tiny venues in London at some point. So instead of selling bands you don't yet know, I sold the idea of being there before anybody else.

The Style
Promoters rely on their gut instincts when it comes to new artists. There is no guarantee an act will sell tickets, let alone go on to sell out Wembley Arena. A 'sure thing' doesn't exist, theres always a risk, and with that comes mistakes. In a way they are trying to predict the next big thing, so I wanted to find a style that could match. I did this by taking inspiration from music and what "Post-Punk" is to "Punk". I then applied this idea to "Digital Design", to arrive at "Post-Digital". What this means is taking parts of the current trend and mixing it with what went before. So taking inspiration from VHS, Photocopiers and early Windows based computers. Breaking the grid and introducing glitches and mistakes. This is where Risograph was a perfect fit for never printing 100% accurate. The idea of "Post-Digital" for me became about putting what we knew about digital, back into print. Even the headlines themselves became based on examples of click-bait from social media. This all resulted in a big melting pot of different ideas. And it allowed me to create something unique, in a very busy market place.

The campaign launched on January 18th 2017. It is currently distributed across shows in London.