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Burnout Touring
Burnout Touring (originally the “Burnout Tour”) was a collaborative live experience between the Department of Arts and Club 121 / 121 Festival. Spanning four sold-out nights across Aotearoa — Hawke’s Bay, Raglan, Tauranga, and Wellington — it was a high-energy, immersive dance odyssey featuring some of the most exciting emerging house and techno talent from both New Zealand and Australia. The project blended raw branding with experiential design to create a unforgettable atmosphere.
Branding
Experience Design
Graphic Design
Spatial Design
Logo Mark
Look and Feel
Event Design
Challenge
Instead of following the typical rough-and-grungy rave aesthetic, we pivoted toward a more playful yet powerful visual system. The goal was to keep things raw and energetic, but reinterpret them with softness and simplicity — smooth, almost cartoon-like 3D objects suspended in stark black voids, paired with cascading, overblown type. The challenge was in balancing fun with force: graphic design that didn’t take itself too seriously, but still punched hard.
Approach
We leaned into bold minimalism — plush 3D forms contrasted against deep black canvases, oversized typography that poured off the edge of frames, and layouts that felt immediate and unrestrained. The design system embraced imperfection through scale and composition, not grit. In physical spaces, we translated the aesthetic into simple mirrored ACM panels, hard cuts of vinyl, and reactive lightboxes — creating a lo-fi, tactile presence that was easy to tour and impossible to miss.
Light-boxes galore.
Output
The full identity stretched across motion graphics, posters, social assets, and physical staging elements. Everything packed flat into a Suzuki Carry van and was rebuilt the next day — making it tour-friendly, durable, and responsive to each venue. The end result was a lightweight but visually impactful presence that felt just as loud as the music itself.
Burnout Touring was a high-speed ride through four cities — visceral, immediate, and unforgettable. The stripped-back visual language gave the tour its own pulse and personality. Huge thanks to Olly and Cam, the whole 121 crew, and the Department of Arts team for the chaos, collaboration, and late-night bump-outs.
