From visual identity to live video projections, album covers to custom-built dynamic websites, Diskotopia is the single longest collaborative project I’ve been continually involved in.
Diskotopia started in Osaka as a music event in the mid-2000s organised by a couple of friends. From the beginning I set about developing the visual design of the events, primarily the logo and flyer designs which underwent many iterations as the project evolved.
As the event became a weekly fixture, I began producing live video projections, at first using basic video mixing software and building up a library of clips. Soon I discovered Quartz Composer and over time developed a broad set of custom-programmed patches for interactive and audio-responsive generative video and manipulation of my clip library. VDMX was a revelation at the time.
By the 2010s, Diskotopia had relocated to Tokyo and begun the transition to a record label. While I was fortunate enough to produce and run the visuals for a few events in the capital, this also marked my transition to focus on new responsibilities.
The first task was to develop a new visual identity for the label for use across print and digital media. This resulted in a custom typographic logo design to be plastered across the top of launch promotional materials as well as the newly-developed website. This was a CMS-backed website built with a custom PHP framework and a little bit of my early jQuery dabbling. The logotype would later be developed into a full font.
The label identity was refined into a vertical tag containing the logotype, always to be placed at the top-left corner of its context. This stemmed from the album cover designs and was reiterated across all applications, notably the design for the newly rebuilt website. With a clean, minimal layout and greatly improved user flow and general UX, the site also incorporated new custom video and audio playback among numerous other technical improvements.
Over the course of my work with Diskotopia, one of the greatest pleasures has been the opportunity to put visuals to artists' music in the form of album cover designs. Additionally, working within a finite, well-established format such as a record cover provides the kind of limitations that can push creativity further. These have been very rewarding collaborations, given the level of trust and creative freedom so generously afforded by both the artists and the label.
Though I’ve been less directly involved with the label recently, I still work with them from time to time and enjoy collaborations that have grown from there. I’m happy to see that the visuals are in very capable hands, just as the music always has been.