f*ck nachtplan*
Between October 21st — 28th of 2022 I took part to a collective project titled ‘Performative Graphics’ curated by design duo Atelier Brenda in Stelplaats (Leuven) and hosted by Horst X Nachtplan in collaboration with KU Leuven. The project’s aim was to (inter)actively investigate how we can individually and collectively create components for a visual identity for Nachtplan that corresponds to the zeitgeist, and to create – in synergy with a transdisciplinary group of designers, architects and music performers – a concept for a future night club that would later open its doors to Leuven citizens.
How can we collectively create temporary components for a visual identity in the context of clubbing by documenting Stelplaats’ culture and history and linking it to its future?
Our design process was based on the creation of a contiguous balance between individual and collective inputs and outputs, ranging from a discoursive brainstorming phase to a hands-on intensive drawing process, whose sketches were scanned and collected digitally. This later led to an investigation around “De Lijn”, a public transportation company that shares its headquarters at Stelplaats together with Nachtplan. I deconstructed and mixed up the symbols found at the De Lijn’s bus depot with the ones we drew intuitively together to generate a graphic output that was inspired by Industrial/techno(logic) style from the surrounding context.
Fig. #06. Visualization of all posters created and printed for the Horst X Nachtplan party in Leuven, 2022.
The quote ‘Fuck Around and Find Out’, which we used as a reference to our intuitive action process, comes from a panel talk held by Eric Cyuzuzo on October 23rd; the title ‘F*ck Nachtplan’, instead, comes from an act of vandalism occurred at Stelplaats during the days of the project where locals graffiti-painted this very line on the building’s glass walls for everybody to see. We took this chance with much self-irony and documented the doodles in order to have them converge into the ongoing design process. The freedom to experiment while being inspired by the surroundings and contents of Stelplaats resulted in a visual identity that perfectly captured the spirit of Nachtplan’s future night club.
Fig. #07-09. Overview and details of the posters created for Horst X Nachtplan temporary night club in Leuven. Photo Credits: Jente Waerzeggers, 2022.