Or in English, "Hold onto your Lederhosen festival!". Oktoberfest originated in Germany in the year 1810, celebrating the marriage of Prince Ludwig's marriage to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen. Following the grand festivities, the couple declared the event an annual tradition. Over the years, the festival has come to include German foods, drinks, dressing in authentic Lederhosen and Dirndl, Schuhplattler, and much more.

Oktoberfest has a rich history and strong aesthetic. I wanted my design to represent this while also having a modern, clean design. Grabbing a person's attention with the "O" as a looking glass to guide the viewer's eye to the emotion of the people in the photos, and then read each poster's theme: Food, Drink, and Culture.

Blackletter and Oktoberfest go well together because this font family has been around since the start of this festival. Blackletter adds a classic visual style to the design while offsetting the more modern use of layout and photo treatment.

The colors are inspired by the German flag: red, yellow, and black. Yellow and red are attention-grabbing colors and will catch people's eye when walking or driving by, while black keeps the saturation down enough not to be overwhelming.

As I explored different themes and elements related to Oktoberfest, I noticed how screen printing resembled the carbonation bubbles in beer. Inspired by this, I began experimenting with stylizing the photos. I applied a screen-printed texture using red or yellow with black over the images. Once I finalized the photo treatment, I focused on crafting the poster's message.

Recognizing that the "O" would dominate the design, I began planning how to arrange the event information. To make the event more memorable, I added a tagline, "Halt deine lederhosen fest!" inside the "O," adding playful charm. For the event details, I staggered the sentences between left and right justification while aligning them to the edge of the "O" to create a sense of balance and cohesion. This approach ensured the information remained unified and visually anchored within the design.

After finalizing the posters, I wanted to take this concept even further.

Utilizing the same photo treatment of the posters, I created drinking wristbands and admission tickets. Admission tickets feature different photos and information for adults, seniors, and children. The drinking wristbands advocate responsible drinking and feature some wristbands saying "Prost" instead of "Cheers."

Using the posters as a guiding point, I created a couple of motion social media posts, making a digital entry point to pair with the printed posters. Adding motion to the social posts helps them stand out against the rest of the viewer's feed.

Lastly is an engraved mug featuring the "O" with the year the mug was purchased. Offering a limited-time item is a great memory for people to take home. Designing a memento serves as a lasting reminder during and after the festival and, allows attendees to use it immediately upon purchase.

Letting go and trying different filters and effects with photography treatments. This change in approach helped me in future projects where I found stunning visual solutions, instead of the same approach I would normally have followed. Research played a large role as well.

Researching the festival's history and the design approach of past posters revealed that previous designs focused more on tangible aspects of the festival, such as the food and attractions, rather than highlighting the shared experiences and cultural interactions.

Recognizing what was missing from previous designs, I refined my approach with this in mind. This shift allowed me to look beyond the surface of the topics and focus on the smaller, more engaging moments within them. It's often these subtle interactions that contribute to the positive experiences people take away.