Out of Place

Out of Place is a feature-length documentary that explores the DIY music scene in Limerick City. Created by the cultural collective, Féile Na Gréine, the film is a meditation on the role music plays in building community and explores the tensions that emerge when musicians struggle to carve out a space for themselves in their city. The visual identity for the film needed to communicate and reflect the DIY nature in which this film was created. 

As an independent production, the visual identity needed to be lean and efficient while drawing links to the visual language of underground music. Artifacts created while filming were then used as central brand elements. Analog photography and portraiture play a large role in the film, so it was only natural to implement the characteristics of analog film within the brand; the flaws found on emulsion, the sharp grain, and even mimicking the development process in our motion design.

We developed a bespoke typographic character-set from electrical tape for use in digital communications and the end-credit sequence. While filming we noticed that electrical tape is used extensively within live music spaces to tie cables down, create impromptu directional signage, and even dampen the sound of drums. Using this material we created condensed letterforms that would tower above audiences in a cinema context, giving maximum prominence to the stars of this film, the artists.  

All the supportive brand elements were tied together with a dramatic colour palette of black, white and fluorescent green, green being the Limerick county colour. This created standout in the motion design but also fed into all other aspects of the film release, with venue RGB lights set to green, posters Xeroxed on fluro-green paper, editorial design of a companion photography book, and even the soundtrack, which was released on a glowing green cassette.

The film was accepted in film festivals in Ireland, England and the US, and was nominated for Best Documentary in Irish Film Festival London, before setting out on a sold-out tour across Ireland in 2023. With a miniscule budget, the film was still able to stand out in the tumultuous film festival circuit due, in part, to a bold and dramatic visual identity that authentically reflected the subjects of the film.