Bud Light • SXSW
Creative Direction, Innovation, Experiential and StrategyTURNING POSTERS INTO INSTRUMENTS.
Bud Light wanted to reestablish its credibility in music by creating an SXSW experience that brought artists and fans closer together.
I helped lead the creative strategy and direction behind an idea that transformed traditional music posters into playable instruments. Using conductive ink, touch and custom technology, we created interactive artwork that allowed fans to remix songs from artists performing at the Bud Light Factory simply by touching the wall.
What started as a piece of visual communication became a shared physical experience, bringing together art, music, technology and people in a way that invited everyone to participate.
I helped lead the project from early concept through experience development, working across creative, experiential, technology, artists and production partners to turn the idea into something people could physically interact with.
My Role.
Creative DirectionCreative Strategy
Experience Concept
Innovation
Art Direction
Partner Collaboration
DON’T JUST LISTEN TO THE MUSIC.
PLAY IT.
We created a series of interactive music posters inspired by Austin, Bud Light's visual identity and the artists performing at SXSW.
Each poster contained conductive touchpoints connected to individual elements of a song. Touch one area and trigger the drums. Another brings in vocals. Another adds bass or melody. When multiple people touched the artwork together, they could collaboratively remix the track in real time.
MAKING THE IMPOSSIBLE PLAYABLE.
Bringing the idea to life required collaboration across visual artists, musicians, experiential production and emerging technology.
Conductive ink was printed directly into the artwork and mapped to specific visual touchpoints. A custom circuit and software system translated each touch into a musical command, allowing a printed poster to behave like an instrument.
The technology was never meant to be the idea. It existed to make the interaction feel effortless.
MUSIC IS BETTER TOGETHER.
The experience became more interesting as more people joined in.
Different visitors could trigger different parts of the same song simultaneously, turning strangers into collaborators and the wall into a shared instrument. No musical training was required. The only instruction was to touch, experiment and play.
ARTISTS PLAYING THEIR OWN MUSIC.
The experience came full circle when artists performing at the Bud Light Factory began using the installation themselves, remixing their own tracks and watching fans reinterpret their music in real time.
Artist Testimonials.
Bob Moses
Aluna Francis (of AlunaGeorge)
TransViolet
IMPACT.
From the streets of SXSW to the front page of USA Today, fans engaged with the different elements of music and got to be their own artists. That is the impact of a deeply emotional connection to the music.
5,500+ Unique guests
85+ Iinteractions per hour
14.6M+ Ssocial impressions
TECHNOLOGY YOU COULD FEEL.
I've always been most interested in technology when it disappears into the experience.
Nobody needed to understand conductive ink, Bluetooth protocols or custom software to enjoy the installation. They just touched a wall and suddenly they were making music with someone else.
The technology made it possible. The human interaction made it memorable.