Benedikt Luft's identity for Lazy represents the joyful nature of a drunken outdoor party

Benedikt Luft has done it again! Over the past year, we’ve watched as Benedikt has crept into graphic design from the brilliant illustration home he’s crafted for himself. His latest project, Lazy, sees the two coming together with smile-inducing effects.

Lazy, a series of parties taking place at a pond in Frankfurt each summer for ten years and counting, has been given an illustration/design lick of paint from Benedikt over the last three years. Originally, Lazy’s location was actually dug in order to widen the dock of the pond, but the plans were halted before completion. Instead, and fortunately, a “beautiful green oasis was formed in the middle of big office buildings,” and Benedikt’s latest identity is one that merges literal nature, and the joyful nature of a dancing, drink spilling party.

Due to revisiting the identity each year Benedikt consciously tries to have “fun developing new concepts every time,” he tells It’s Nice That. “While we were telling stories about summer using the same round shape for every poster last year, we wanted to make something more direct for 2018,” he continues. “An identity that could speak for itself.”

Benedikt and the Lazy team’s aims for 2018 were to create an identity that looked “bold and positive, without being clumsy,” he says. This can especially be seen in Benedikt’s illustrations which vary from animals, plants or musical instruments which have “a very distinct but at the same time dynamic and often abstracted appearance,” he points out. This appearance is created by shape, one that includes swoops, from a birds wing in one image to the elongated neck of a trumpet in another, or even in Benedikt’s use of typography.

The colour palette chosen exemplifies this quality. This is especially noticeable in the main poster for the party series, specifically chosen to represent the characteristics of the event’s outside location, “the blue water and the warm reds of a sunset and sunrise since the parties start around 8pm and end in the morning sun,” Benedikt explains. “The event posters, on the other hand, have their own colour schemes, showing that every event is a unique experience.” Applying his illustrations to these posters was also the most fun part for Benedikt. “Functioning in their size ratio as online banners horizontally (Facebook events), but can also be found printed all around the city in the same ratio but hung vertically, shifting the readability between illustration and typography, making it slightly irritating but not illegible.”