COLOMBIA AL PARQUE

— CLIENT

Instituto Distrital de las Artes Idartes

— ROLE

Art director, illustrator & graphic designer

— DATE

2018

Music, history, and the emotional weight of national sounds take shape in a giant approaching monolith. Colombia al Parque is a festival that celebrates the diversity of our territory. It connects us to our roots and to the popular tradition that defines us.

Deliverables:

Festival visual identity, official poster, merchandise, stage graphics, transit graphics and editorial materials.

Software:

Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator.

THE CHALLENGE

Idartes needed an image for the 17th edition of Colombia al Parque, a free public festival that brings together traditional and regional Colombian music. The 2018 edition expanded its scope. It added mariachi and bolero for the first time, alongside Pacific, Caribbean, and Andean music. The artwork had to encompass that entire range in a single image, without flattening it into a generic folk poster.

CREATIVE STRATEGY

I built the concept around scale. Instead of illustrating instruments or dancers, I treated the entire cultural weight of the festival as one object: a Monolith. A giant mass made of sound, history, and memory, descending toward the park. The monolith also drew from Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle.

CONCEPT

DEVELOPMENT

Inspired by the imaginary of Moebius, the poster brings together Pacific rhythms, MIDI elements, and indigenous totems. Together they reflect Colombian cultural heritage through colourful shapes and a composition built to catch the eye.

The goal was to recreate an entire Latin American neighbourhood, in the spirit of the favelas in Brazil or Comuna 13 in Medellín, gathering all these elements into one shared place.

EXECUTION

I worked as illustrator and designer for this piece within the Idartes Communications Office. The image ran across the festival's official campaign for the 2018 edition, spanning the gala at Auditorio Fabio Lozano and the two main days at Parque de los Novios.

IMPACT

The 2018 edition doubled attendance compared to 2017. The mariachi and bolero additions marked the first time those genres appeared at the festival, expanding its reach into new audiences alongside its core Pacific and Andean lineup.

1. DOUBLED ATTENDANCE

The 2018 edition doubled attendance compared to the previous year, marking the festival's biggest jump up to that point.

2. DISCOVERING NEW SOUNDS

For the first time in 17 editions, the festival brought in mariachi and bolero alongside Pacific and Caribbean sounds, widening the audience the festival could reach.

3. OFFICIAL IMAGE

The monolith image became the official visual piece for the entire 2018 campaign, appearing at the opening gala at Auditorio Fabio Lozano and across both main days at Parque de los Novios.

4. RECOGNIZABLE IMAGINARY

The element that marked the image in the city's imagination was scale. Instead of illustrating musicians or instruments, the whole festival was represented as one giant object arriving in Bogotá, something no previous year had done.