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Designing the MOBO Awards 2009 Identity

Posted 20 Jul 2009

We were delighted to be chosen by the Music of Black Origin (MOBO) Awards to produce the concept and design for the forthcoming 2009 Award Ceremony in Glasgow. MOBO were looking for an agency to create a stunning visual identity to build their entire event promotion around. With an extremely tight deadline we worked around the clock to create something special that would capture our client's imagination.

The Brief

The brief was to come up with a concept that communicated a number of key factors;

- MOBO is going on tour

- MOBO will be 'taking over' Glasgow

- A new beginning for MOBO

- A glamorous night time event

The Idea

Following a very productive briefing session with the client we pulled our creative team together and began working through ideas. Using a creative treatment, moodboards and sketches we presented three approaches to the MOBO marketing team. After getting really excited about all three ideas they finally settled on our favourite direction - 'MOBO City'

The Solution

'MOBO City' is all about celebrating MOBO taking over Glasgow. The client had informed us that the Glasgow public were incredibly excited about the award show coming to their city. We wanted to capture this excitement and also the enormity of the event and it's meaning. Using 'Hollywood Nights' as our inspiration our initial idea was to build a stylised Scottish skyline illuminated by a large MOBO sign. However we needed to communicate the fact that 'MOBO was on the move' so we decided to focus on the stage before this, and show a huge illuminated MOBO sign being transported into Glasgow by helicopters!

The Creative

We decided to make the SECC venue a key focus of our skyline - as it's exterior is striking and would naturally stand out in the design. Also the venue is on the river so we used a reflective water surface to emphasise this. As well as the Glasgow cityscape, it was imperative for the client that the brand was still the central focus of the artwork - we modeled the logo in 3D with some global lighting effects. The rest was created in photoshop along with the layered city scape and the rich coloured lights that emanate from the logo.

The Feedback

MOBO were delighted with both our idea and creation. They said they loved it and that it exceeded their expectations - you can't ask for more than that.