When conceptualising a theme and identity for the event, it seemed important to reference time periods related to our musical genre along with visual assets which could further incorporate nostalgia to our older audience. With our event headliner booked and our musical genre solidified as 80's/90's acid house, it seemed appropriate to attempt to incorporate warehouse raves into the visual communication of our designs to signify the musical style and time period. Therefore, I decided to call upon some of my unused research from a past project as it seemed extremely relevant to this particular aesthetic style. This research was based around nostalgic visual signifiers from the 80's and 90's, one, in particular, was the 'BBC Test Card F'.
This ambiguous visual asset is representative of 'BBC after hours', it signifies television and media channels in the 80's being cut off and censored after 10pm. Using this asset, remixed within our theme would not only directly relate to media within the 80's and 90's, but would also be expressive of nightlife as it was only ever seen after 10pm. Incorporating this may be a subtle technique to represent the rave culture and will target the nostalgia of the audience of the 80s-2000's. This technique may be a trigger to jolt or bring back memories from this period of time in the viewer's life which is exactly what the aim of the event will be.
Drawing from past experience is of the upmost importance within this project to hopefully really relate with the audience and user experience in a more personal and meaningful way. If I were to say just design a poster of people dancing, then the poster might as well be any dance event. It is important to target the years surrounding the event with techniques, popular culture at the time and subtle messages to really convey and capture this millennium aura.
'The card was developed by a BBC engineer, George Hersee (1924–2001), father of the girl in the central image. It was frequently broadcast during downtime on BBC1 until that channel went fully 24 hours in November 1997, and on BBC Two until its downtime was replaced entirely by Pages from Ceefax in 1998, after which it was only seen during engineering work, and was last seen in this role in 1999.'
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test_Card_F
With the Test Card F being shown from the 70's and then decommissioned in 1999, I think this could be the perfect opportunity to represent not only event but also to celebrate the start of a new millennium.
By utilising the 'BBC Test Card F' in one of my designs, I could recontextualise its core meaning, therefore, creating parodic final resolutions. This would reposition the BBC company from being very authoritarian to their transition becoming this new and unique head in the culture of dance music.
The concept and context would represent the change in values which the BBC went through, specifically the BBC radio stations. This transition into dance music stemmed from the emergence of pirate radio stations at the time, a short article is linked about this below;
'In 1967, concerned at the growing number of pirate stations broadcasting over the UK and the potential interference to foreign radio stations, the British government passed the Marine Broadcasting Offences Act which made it illegal to advertise or supply an offshore radio station from the UK. All the offshore stations off the British coast closed, with the exception of Radio Caroline, which moved its supply operation to the Netherlands where offshore broadcasting had not yet been outlawed. However, the advertising revenue from overseas sources was not forthcoming and the station was forced off the air less than a year later when the ships were impounded by the shipping company due to non payment. Six weeks after the Marine Offences Act was passed, the BBC introduced its national pop station Radio 1, modelled largely on the successful pirate formulae.
BBC Radio 1 was launched in September 1967 as a direct response to the popularity of offshore pirate radio stations and broadcast on 242 metres. The programmes came from Studio D, on the first floor of Broadcasting House and featured Tony Blackburn (formerly Radio Caroline and 'Wonderful Radio London') opening the station with "Flowers in the Rain" by The Move and the second single was "Massachusetts" by The Bee Gees. The programme formats were similar to the pirate stations and many of the popular DJs, like Blackburn featured prominently. John Peel, Ed Stewart, Dave Cash, Kenny Everett, Simon Dee, Dee Lee Travis, Emperor Roscoe, Mike Reid, and Annie Nightingale all became firm favourites. Needle time restrictions (a restriction on the amount of commercial music that could be played on radio) prevented it from playing as many records as offshore stations had, and limited finances from the State-run station meant Radio 1 was less successful at first but eventually, thanks to no real opposition, it gained massive audiences. Pick of the Pops presented by Australian DJ, Alan ‘Fluff” Freeman, was compulsive listening and ran from 1967 until 1972 and featured new entries to the top 30 best selling singles in the UK, as well as the complete Top 20. The Radio 1 Roadshow, which started in 1973, drew large crowds and featured many of the live acts of the time. Radio 1’s monopoly ended in 1973 when Independent Local Radio was introduced to the UK. Radio 1’s format has continued to evolve to meet public taste.'
http://www.zani.co.uk/culture/687-brief-history-of-the-pirate-radio-stations-uk
