The Blue Hour
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Identity, pop-up experience

team Sole Designer

Thank you to Margaret Swart for being a wonderful mentor for this project.
 Definition of [激しい]
i-adjective - violent; furious; tempestuous; relentless


Blue Giant is a Japanese animated movie about a young and passionate saxophonist breaking into the Tokyo jazz scene and pouring his heart out through music. 激しい is the best way to describe the movie’s soundtrack and animation: while some parts may be rough around the edges, the music and visuals culminate in an orchestrated musical storm.

The Blue Hour is a pop-up experience inspired by the movie that features a jazz cafe, jazz bar with live performances, and shop that sells unique merch such as branded drumsticks and vinyls for the movie soundtrack.









Translating music 
into type and colorThe Blue Giant movie is adapted from the Blue Giant comic, which had perfected the method of capturing sound in a silent medium. This inspired me to push my typography to the limits.

Through this project, I wanted to layer and experiment more with type: while some text sit comfortably on the horizontal bars like notes sitting on a music staff, other letters lengthen and change in scale like a musician releasing their breath for the final note.I was also inspired by the warm and cool palettes used in the animation. Using a limited palette of vibrant hues, I layered my type like how different members of a band complement each other’s performances.








































































Project takeawaysIdeas sometimes need to marinate.

While the idea of creating a pop-up cafe for this movie came immediately after watching Blue Giant, my grasp on branding and typography wasn’t strong enough to execute the idea the way I wanted it to. When I had the opportunity to work on a project while being mentored by my Design Director, I dusted off this project after a year of sitting on it and dove right into it. If an idea is interesting, it will no doubt pass the test of time.


Type talks.

One of the reasons that this project excites me is how much the typography ended up speaking for itself. Sometimes it acts as a conduit for strong messages and sometimes it is the strong message with its bright colors and bold curves. 

I want to work on more projects that celebrate this kind of typographic expressiveness.






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