Saudi Design Festival
Animating a Shape-Shifting Logo Into Its Full Potential
Overview
The Saudi Design Festival, a landmark initiative by the Architecture and Design Commission, needed to bring its identity to life. Tarek Atrissi designed a variable typeface logo built across four axes, capable of stretching, elongating, shifting weight. On paper it was innovative. In static applications it was just a logo. I was brought in as the lead animator on the team handling all the festival's creative applications. I created an animation system that brought Tarek's variable system to life. The wordmark stretches wide, elongates tall, thickens and thins, each shift tied directly to the font's four axes and synchronized to a dynamic score. Suddenly the four axes weren't theoretical anymore, they were visible, tactile, working in real time. The animation became the event's hero visual, used across launch materials, promotional videos, and social content. It later served as the definitive proof of concept when the project was submitted for D&AD awards in London, ultimately winning a Graphite Pencil.
Deliverables:
Social Media Design
Motion Design
Brand Collateral Design
Year
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2023
Client
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Architecture and Design Commission
Motion Across the Festival
Beyond the logo, I produced the full motion suite: teaser videos, social reels, and launch content that built momentum for the event. The collective work reached 700,000 views.
Print & Invitation
Print was equally important to the digital side. I designed the VIP invitation package and created a standalone festival poster that introduced a glitchy, fragmented typographic language—an effect I developed across all the motion content. It gave the physical space a distinctly digital edge that complemented Tarek's variable system. These pieces proved the identity could work across mediums without losing its sophistication.
