Lumen Nights

A campaign that glows — posters designed to be read at night, from across a square.

Client

Lumen Nights — festival of light and sound

Role

Campaign identity, posters, motion

Year

2025

Location

Lisbon

(01)

Overview

Lumen Nights takes over the city’s riverfront for four nights each winter. The festival wanted a campaign that felt as warm and slow as the installations themselves.

(02)

The challenge

The posters would mostly be seen after dark, at a distance, by people walking past. Small type and fine detail would simply disappear.

(03)

The approach

I designed a set of soft-edged light forms that bloom out of deep, inky backgrounds, paired with an oversized condensed headline that holds up at fifty metres. In motion the forms breathe on a twelve-second loop, slow enough to feel like weather rather than advertising.

“People photographed the posters as if they were part of the festival. In a sense they were.”

Rita Mendes, programme director (fictional)

(04)

The outcome

The campaign ran across 400 street posters, the festival’s site and the bridge projections. The loop was later used as the opening sequence on the main stage.

Credits

Motion: Studio Vela · Production: Lumen Nights team · Typeface: custom

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