The Edit: five projects including Lava’s vibrantly ‘smeared’ identity for Dutch festival Smeerboel

Each and every day, we’re lucky to discover dozens of interesting and inspiring projects from around the world. From global identities and campaigns to side projects and independently published books, The Edit is home to five of them; every two weeks. The Dutch have brought many excellent things into the world – stroopwafels, Max Verstappen, gouda, you name it. But there’s one thing The Netherlands are particularly great at, and that’s music. Boasting sets from some of Europe’s best techno, house, disco, 90’s and 00’s artists and DJs, Smeerboel is a music festival in Utrecht with branding as lively and electric and the event itself. Designed by Amsterdam-based branding studio Lava, the identity introduces the ‘Smeer Tool’ – created as an interactive, web-based 3D tool for the festival. “In the first meeting with the festival team,” says Head of Design Sacha van den Haak, “we immediately recognised that the festival has a very clear proposition – creating cool and fun stuff. In the after movies of previous editions we watched visitors actively participating in the festival program. We knew right away that the creative concept should be straightforward and interactive. So, what if we take the festival’s name literally and get ‘smearing’?” The tool’s gestural and expressive nature is balanced through typography, notably Futura Condensed Extra Bold. “It was the only one font we could find that survived the smearing and still convey a ‘happy-go-lucky vibe’,” van den Haak reveals. Meanwhile, the team added luminous shades of yellow, red, purple, grey, and green to the colour palette to avoid a childlike aesthetic. The identity can evolve in future years too, with potential for new colour palettes and technological advancements, such as AR filters and physical interactions at the festival. Lena Barclay-Steuart has successfully turned her passion for beauty into a flourishing empire, proudly establishing a physical beauty salon in the heart of Potsdam. The reinvigorated identity of Lena Schleweis, crafted by Berlin-based Studio VEH, draws its inspiration from the concept of gemstones, reinforcing the belief that each woman radiates a unique and dazzling brilliance. The visual identity juxtaposes bold gemstone shapes with gentle arch-shaped elements, inspired by the architectural elegance of the salon’s windows. The team opted for Grilli Type’s serif sans hybrid GT Ultra as the hero typeface for its geometric construction and calligraphic elements, which encapsulate the brand’s personality – personal, professional, and flexible. Following some tweaks from the design team, the wordmark also hides a gemstone shape in the ‘W’, symbolising the unique beauty of each individual. “For the colour palette,” Creative Director Franziska Veh and Art Director Lind Haugaard explain, “we drew inspiration from Lena’s body of work, her values and her natural sense of style, ranging between elegance, peachy softness, to more bold and stunning looks.” Combined, these elements craft an unmistakably striking and cohesive aesthetic that embodies Barclay-Steuart’s brand perfectly.