Toronto Music, Cultural Diversity & Multimedia Design
My Role
Multimedia Designer
Logistics Coordinator
Team
Brooklin Hallett
Hani Alaf
Jessie Gosling
Kareem El-Tyeb
Maria Fernanda Martin
Tudor Plopeanu
Year
May 2024 - August 2024
Tools
Microsoft Office Suites
Adobe Creative Suites
Canva
Notion
FigJam
Intro
"Compass Chronicles: Shaping Toronto’s Musical Narrative" captures the essence of a project focused on exploring Toronto's rich musical culture.
Through strategic branding and visual storytelling, this work highlights the personal journeys of four local artists while emphasizing themes of Equity, Diversity, and Accessibility within the music industry.
What is Culture's Compass 2024?
Culture’s Compass is an initiative led by Humber CCBI and Humber Galleries, evolving annually to explore and highlight diverse cultural and artistic narratives. This year, we're thrilled to partner once again with Small World Music in support of their Global Toronto Music Festival (GTMF).
Who we are?
Our 2024 Culture’s Compass Fellowship team consists of seven talented individuals from diverse backgrounds, each bringing unique skills and perspectives to the project.
Outcome
The 2024 Culture's Compass project resulted in the creation of a diverse range of media content to highlight Toronto’s music scene. This includes one introductory podcast, four in-depth interview videos, four engaging reels, two newsletters, and a dedicated website, all designed to showcase and amplify the voices of local artists.
Impact
The 2024 Culture's Compass project has significantly boosted the visibility of Toronto's vibrant music scene, by producing and sharing these multimedia pieces across multiple platforms, including social media channels with a reach of over 1,500 followers.
Visual Summary of "Compass Chronicles" Project
This visual illustrates the 2024 "Compass Chronicles" project, featuring interviews with four Toronto musicians and producing five podcasts, four videos, and two newsletters, highlighting cultural diversity.
Process
Planning and Direction
Our team brainstormed and we decided to produce a series of interviews to highlight GTMF24 artists and then selected the series name, "Compass Chronicles."
Branding and Preparation
The Culture’s Compass logo and basic brand guidelines were created for this year. Additionally, logistics were managed to ensure the project stayed on schedule, such as equipment rental and interview questions.
Filming and Editing
Filming was conducted and then the raw interview videos and footage were edited, enhancing the narrative and visual quality of the series.
Marketing
A marketing campaign was developed to promote the project across a variety of platforms, ensuring broad visibility and engagement with the audience.
Planning and Direction
In the first month (May), we began discussing our plans for the fellowship. At the same time, we started working with Small World Music to prepare for the Global Toronto Music Festival (GTMF24). As a result, we decided to focus on Toronto's culture and music, and to highlight local musicians. We selected four artists for interviews.
Brainstorming Process
During the brainstorming step, we pitched a wide variety of ideas that we want to do, such as storytelling with a performance about Toronto's unique story and artistic flash mobs, etc.
Branding and Preparation
In the second month (June), we began working on branding and preparation as we had already decided to conduct interviews. During this month, we created our logo for our brand identity and marketing purposes. In terms of preparation, we checked our equipment and assigned responsibilities to everyone, such as outreach, interviewers, camera operators, editors, etc.
The Core Concept of Culture's Compass 2024 Logo
This logo was created by me and Maria. The design integrates the initials "CC" in a fluid, interconnected style, symbolizing connection and movement. Sound waves within the "C" emphasize music’s role, while the gradient colours—purple, blue, and orange—represent diversity and creativity. The elements highlight Culture’s Compass’s focus on exploring cultural narratives through music and sound.
Branding Guideline
While designing the logo, I also created the branding guidelines so that others could use our logo while following the typography and colour patterns. This branding guideline showcases the "Nuito Bold" typography and a gradient colour pattern blending shades of purple, blue, and orange, symbolizing diversity, creativity, and warmth for Culture's Compass 2024.
Interview Questions
These interview questions were created by team discussion. They can be split into 3 parts: warm-up questions, core questions, and closing questions.
Warm-up Questions
1. Could you tell the viewers about your musical style at the moment?
2. Are there any songs or albums that have been on repeat for you lately?
3. Who were some of your biggest musical inspirations growing up? Have they changed now?
Core Questions (GTMF24, Toronto Culture and Equity, Accessibility, and Diversity)
4. How do you feel about being a part of GTMF, and what can we expect from your performance?
5. How has living in Toronto impacted your work as an artist? Have any neighbourhoods, venues, or communities influenced you? 6. In what ways do you think the Toronto music scene excels in terms of Equity, Accessibility, and Diversity? What areas need improvement? 6a) *Optional* How do you incorporate equity, accessibility, and diversity into your work and platform as an artist?
Closing Questions
7. Do you have upcoming projects we should be excited about?
8. What is the best way for people to find you, and for your fans to keep updated on your work?
Filming and Editing
In the third month (July), we primarily worked on filming for four artists and then edited the videos.
Filming Process
The interview took place on July 8th and July 15th in a collaborative studio setting. Four musicians were interviewed, with a focus on lighting, camera work, and authentic storytelling.
Final Interview Video
I was responsible for editing two videos. To ensure accessibility, I included closed captions and added speaker names at the beginning of each sentence to indicate who is speaking. Additionally, I designed descriptive text for the introduction of the interviewer and interviewee, such as "Interviewer: Name" and "Interviewee: Name."
Aphrose Interview Video
Julian Taylor Interview Video
Marketing
In the last month (August), we completed the interview videos and promoted our whole outcomes.
Marketing Campaign and Channels
To effectively promote our different objectives, I created this marketing campaign.This diagram shows our marketing plan and platforms. In addition to
