SOUND OFF!
EMP Museum (MoPOP) / ongoing program
Team / Art Direction + Design: Jeffrey Underwood
Deliverables / campaign identity / print + digital promo materials / print + digital event signage / swag
Sound Off! is MoPOP’s premier all-ages music showcase, providing emerging Pacific Northwest musicians with mentorship, industry exposure, and the opportunity to perform on one of the region’s most celebrated stages. As one of the museum’s longest-running programs, the festival has helped launch the careers of numerous regional artists while maintaining a strong connection to Seattle’s evolving music community.
Unlike many institutional programs, Sound Off! embraced reinvention. Each year’s campaign was developed by a different designer, creating space for new visual perspectives that reflected the tastes, influences, and creative energy of the festival’s audience. As creative lead for the 13th and 15th annual campaigns, I developed distinctive visual identities that drew from contemporary design culture while capturing the spirit of emerging music and youth creativity.
Although the two campaigns were markedly different in tone and execution, both were built around the same challenge: creating memorable and culturally relevant work that could stand out in a crowded music landscape while supporting a year-long promotional cycle. The result was two highly expressive campaign identities that balanced trend-driven visual experimentation with the strategic needs of a major museum program, extending across call-for-entry promotions, festival marketing, event graphics, publications, and merchandise.
