November 22, 2022

Studio PUNKT about good design and the visual identity of MELBA 2022

For more than 15 years Studio PUNKT has been developing brand identities, illustrations, typefaces and conceptual communication campaigns for clients around the world. The team strives to translate ideas into real, authentic stories told through a sensitive visual language and through a variety of media.

It was Studio PUNKT that created the visual identity for the fifth edition of the MELBA Design Festival. We talk to them about their activities, the challenges in their craft, some interesting projects and turning points in the graphic designer’s creative path.

Could you please introduce studio PUNKT in a few words?

We are a creative studio working in a team of 7 people, based in Plovdiv and Sofia. We’ve been around for 15 years and until now we haven’t stopped being motivated and trying to change the world around us a little bit for the better.

How did you work as a team for 15 years already?

It comes naturally to us. With each successful project, the tasks become more interesting and require more varied approaches. The team is gradually enriched with colleagues and everyone contributes to the overall look of the studio. We are flexible enough and often have to have a colleague to replace another one in a project and continue the work in their own style, but this has always taken us in the right direction so far. We also constantly rely on our wide network of good partnerships and connections with colleagues when we know our expertise is not enough.

What is the current visual identity of the MELBA Festival and what did you want to communicate with it?

It’s not our first time creating a festivals visual identity, but it’s our first time doing it for a design festival. Most of the audience at such events are our colleagues, designers, people with a high visual culture.We decided to take a risk with the idea and ask the question in a provocative way: how easy is it to be a designer in 2022?We achieved this primarily with the colors #FFFF00 and #FF0000 (for those who don’t read HEX, this is the cheapest, easiest and most effective way to get attention) plus disproportionately stretched shapes and quick, “notebook” pencil drawings.Another thing that inspired us was the festival’s first visual identity, created by NEXT-DC (the digital agency which is responsible for all the cool MELBA looks so far). We wanted to make reference to what that first vision very successfully managed to communicate – a sweet, diverse, delicious and classy experience.

Materials for MELBA 2022, created by studio PUNKT 🙌

What were the main creative challenges you encountered while working on the visual identity for MELBA 2022?

Mainly how far down the rabbit hole we could crawl. We had a big concern, especially for the festivals website, that in a UX sense it would become too inaccessible. However, after a few tests we think we achieved a good balance.

Where do you find a dose of inspiration when you lack of ideas?

We have diverse personalities in our team and everyone has their own interests. When we’re together, it’s rare for ideas to get stuck because most of the time we inspire each other. Beside of that we have a solid archive of the coolest brochures and flyers that each of us has collected when we’ve been somewhere abroad. Occasionally, one of us happens to browse them, and accidentally it turns into a teambuilding exercise where everyone shares their impressions or memories of one place or another.

ADATA AiR Residency Program, a part of Plovdiv 2019

Where can we find you when you are not working?

We love the outdoors and escape there at the first opportunity. But that doesn’t mean we don’t work those hours, we just don’t charge them.

What is the most valuable lesson/motto for a graphic designer?

Just like you can’t become an artist without an eraser, you can’t become a designer without Cmd+Z (Ctrl+Z for Windows users).