De Reunie (en: The Reunion) is a rave society that only recently debuted above the post-industrial underground landscapes of Amsterdam. The new event series that considers itself a platform for expression for its residents and its community, has enjoyed success in bringing together some of the new sounds from the Dutch techno scene, some of who often prefer the vivace spectrum (132–140 BPM) as a distinguishing factor.

I was asked to design merchandize for them. I started by setting the boundaries of the assignment, such as clarifying the formal requirements as well as articulating the wider purpose of the brand – the intention of the space to function as a ground for identity formation. As a specific restraint for the amount of design objects was unspecified, the initial sketches were distilled into a dialogue of two concepts:

The first were the bespoke letterforms that articulate a subjective take on the 'imaginary', to hark back to the idea of identity formation. I also wanted to distinguish the brand in a very optically burdened music scene of Amsterdam. By aiming for a unique wordmark, I took the formal qualities of Art Nouveau, representing the 'natural', something 'pre-existing' or 'given', and tried to nudge it toward a point of no return: toward shapes that become something new. The idea of becoming something new fit well with the idea of self-exploration that De Reunie community excels at.

The second design was crafted from the material found from the history of dance notation. 'THE UNION' (a fitting selection for 'De Reunie' (NL), or 'The Reunion' (EN) – a 1707 English ballroom choreography by Isaac Asimov, was deconstructed and reassembled to form the fictional 'new dance'.