15th Annual Rhythms Music Festival, Visual Identity and Campaign

Role: Creative Lead and Designer

Project OverviewI led brand design for the 15th Rhythms Music Festival, presented by Associated Students. This year’s festival culminates in an exhilarating main show headlined by Bay Area icons Mike Sherm and P-Lo.

Authenticity was the core of this project. Since SFSU is a commuter school woven into the fabric of an urban landscape, I cemented the brand as an extension of the city and greater Bay Area rather than an isolated campus event. The result was a brand that felt grassroots, organic, and unmistakably of the Bay.

This worldbuilding approach gave me a cohesive system that scaled across merchandise, event flyers, tickets, lanyards, signage, and social posts. The campaign reached over 200,000 impressions across TikTok and Instagram within the first week, and the main show sold out its 1,000+ capacity venue in under ten minutes—the fastest sellout in the festival's 15-year history.

Inspiration

Visual language of the region: airbrush art at the Alameda County Fair, graffiti/murals in West Oakland, wheatpaste posters in the Mission, billboards along Interstate 580, and the worn textures of Muni bus shelters.

I translated these references into a graphic system grounded in airbrush-style gradients, paint splatters, gritty concrete textures, and a saturated color palette pulled from the tagging that runs along BART through Fruitvale and West Oakland.

Billboard Visualizer made with After Effects

Commemorative ticket and staff badge

VIP badge

Photo Credit: Mari Ramos

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