An underground, independent music venue and store.

Category: Brand Identity

Class: Graduate Studio 2—Spring 2019

Credits: Rudy Manning

*The images and/or videos presented here were used strictly for educational purposes and not material gain.

Sublevel is a fictional business that was created to revive cassette culture and rejuvenate the independent music industry. The business operates through an independent cassette store that curates and collects tapes from around the world. The store also acts as a venue for independent artists to perform in an intimate, basement show setting.

The identity system is generative. The name of the venue acts as a blank canvas for artists and fans to express their own, individual voices in any way that they see fit. Whatever they create becomes a part of the identity.

Taking cues from the punk movement and its quick and dirty style of making, the print assets for Sublevel use scans of imagery flooded with color and overlayed with handwritten type expressing each artist individually.

Each show the artists perform at the venue is recorded on tapes live and special edition tapes are sold after the show.

With its raw energy and unabashed passion, Sublevel aims to be the new home for the independent music scene and be a major part of the lo-fi revolution.