2024 pop culture event
Tracon 2024
Visual identity and art direction for one of Finland's largest pop culture events
As the Art Director for Tracon from 2023 to 2025, I worked on the visual evolution of a major Finnish pop culture convention. After establishing a clean and mature brand foundation in 2023, the 2024 event presented an interesting opportunity when the event collaborated with the Tampere Theatre's large Lord of the Rings production. The event's yearly theme was Light and Shadow, which coincided with the launch of the late-night "Tracon by Night" outside programming. The goal was to merge the event identity with a tactile medieval fantasy aesthetic. The multi-year creative direction ultimately contributed to Tracon being named the City of Tampere's Cultural Event of the Year in 2025, chosen from over 400 applicants.
Challenges
Large-scale conventions require functional design for thousands of attendees. The primary problem was translating high fantasy into practical event collateral without sacrificing usability. Modern things like food tickets and venue maps need to be readable at a glance. The challenge was making them feel medieval while keeping the format people know how to use.
Tracon changes its visual identity every year to match the event theme, so 2024 meant designing a new logo variant that could communicate both the LotR collaboration and the Light and Shadow concept.
Process
The visual system started at the identity. I transformed the 'O' of the logo into a dual representation of the One Ring and the sun, while turning the 'C' into a moon, and filled the negative space with stars, to represent the Light and Shadow theme and the new day and night event structure.
For the visual assets, I selected textures, including copper, tweed, and parchment. The tactile approach was carried through to the physical production. We chose woven fabric wristbands over printed ones and selected yellowed, textured paper for the event magazine. The material choices made the mass-produced event collateral feel like you were going on an adventure. For the digital identity, including the "Tracon by Night" branding, we used the same world-building to set the late-night mood.
The wristband illustrations referenced old illustrated book covers, one a Tolkien-style map of the outside event area and another a dragon illustration. The green tweed worked as fantasy book cover texture and adventurer cape. The badges went forest green with copper accents and matching typography.
