Sayang Wayang
Together under night's embrace
2017
ART DIRECTION | BRANDING | COPYWRITING |
EDITORIAL | GRAPHIC DESIGN | PACKAGING
A two-day wayang kulit (shadow puppet) night festival with activities, performances and masterclasses. Part of UNESCO's Intangible Culture Heritage list, wayang kulit is a fading art form in Singapore. In an era where digital screens reign supreme, how can wayang adapt and weave back into the Singapore consciousness?
Left to right: Festival workshop ticket, festival guide, brochure, poster, festival pass, tote bag, direct mail that doubles up as a portable fan, Wayang Tales - a mini wayang kulit kit for children (includes box, stencil, and torchlight), and a VR headset for an ancillary event.
P R O C E S S
Developing brand identity, research, packaging creation, and other images
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Logo Design
Gold is chosen to represent the sun, which plays an important part in Malay culture and the colour used in the stylised sun motif - surya majapahit.
Black in Indonesian culture represents maturity while white represents void, both colours symbolises emptiness which can be filled; a nod to the intangibility of shadows and a medium with potential for meaning-making.
Surya Majapahit
A symbol of the Majapahit kingdom to represent its dominion of influence in all directions. It also represents the sun’s rays spreading its warmth to everyone - just like how this festival introduce people to the beauty of wayang before it is lost.
The white circle represents the void; a state of tabula rasa where the concept of wayang in deconstructed and reinterpreted.
Gunungan
The gunungan (type of shadow puppet) is often used as a transitory screen to the next scene. It represents the mahameru (Mt. Meru; axis mundi of the Hindu realm) and kayon (tree of life). Also used to represent obstacles, mountains, clouds, seas, or forests in scenes.
The black is used to represent the shadows, an important element in wayang kulit.
Legends
Graphics to represent the various icons for the different segments of the festival for way-finding.
Clockwise from top-left: Performance, Activities, Food, and Music.
The Performance icon is a shadow puppet’s bust as most of the performances revolve around wayang kulit. It also represents the masterclass events.
The Activities icon is a canting, a tool used for pouring wax onto cloth for batik printing, as most of the activities are mostly hands-on arts and crafts sessions.
The Food icon is based off the nasi tumpeng, a conical rice structure with various side dishes served at significant events.
The Music icon is represented by the gong, where its often struck to precede the gamelan performance.
Design Elements
Influenced by sacred geometry and floral motifs on batik.
Colour Guide
Blue is another colour to represent darkness and the void. It represents the sky and water, two important elements in Javanese culture.
Yellow is the most visible colour to the naked eye, and here it represents the light needed to make the shadows of wayang visible. Yellow will often be used as colours for the patterns in design collaterals for the festival to catch the eyes of viewers.
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