Festival Explore the North

Art Direction
Grafisch ontwerp

Explore The North is a city festival that uses the historic city center of Leeuwarden as a stage for music, literature, visual arts and more.

When it was announced that Leeuwarden-Fryslân would be the European Capital of Culture in 2018, Explore the North expanded beyond its annual city festival in November to develop a year-round program focused on "creating new work," literature, and multilingualism.

From the start, my design approach was rooted in experimentation. As literature took on a more prominent role and the program grew broader, I realized the visual identity needed to offer more space—space for other creators to explore their own experiments, and where the emphasis was placed on "exploration."

The visual identity consisted of a carefully chosen typeface (GT Pressura) and the program’s content—both the supplied materials and, more conceptually, quotes from artists featured in the program.
Within that content, I aimed to cultivate mistakes, coincidences, and typographic challenges rather than trying to resolve everything neatly. As a result, each design became an experiment in itself.