Inner Circle
Events to bring house music to hidden spaces
Industry
Entertainment (music and events), Community, B2C
Role
Brand strategy and design
Year / Duration
2024
Overview
In a post-COVID event landscape, Inner Circle’s founders saw an opportunity to revive New Zealand’s house music scene by creating inclusive, curated experiences in off-beat venues.
Inspired by icons like Defected Records and Manchester's Hacienda, we defined the vision to foster community, champion talent, and create safe spaces for “house-heads” to connect through music.
Results
Inner Circle’s first event achieved remarkable success, setting the stage for a music-filled future:
Sold out, within 10 days
showcasing strong community demand, the inaugural event sold out within ten days of its social media debut
Strategic collaboration
with Garage Project’s Wild Workshop and local experiential production house Hype Entertainment, to enhance the event experience
Community impact
reignited Wellington’s house music community, creating a safe, inclusive space for fans to gather and connect
Disconnected and declining; events in the post-virus landscape
COVID-19 left the city’s house music community with several other obstacles to overcome:
Dwindling attendance
Resulting in increased event costs, making them inaccessible to segments of the core audience.
Forced venue closures
With rising costs, fewer spaces were available to host events.
Disconnection
Felt by a scattered and underserved – but enthusiastic – audience.
A sign for inclusivity, creativity, and community
Through strategy and vision-setting workshops, I helped the founders articulate their vision; events that would go beyond music to offer curated, inclusive experiences.
The launch of Inner Circle focused on building excitement through storytelling and targeted social media campaigns. Providing the community with a sense of ownership and belonging was essential, the promotional website, with its bold visual identity, became a hub to highlight venues, local artists and partnerships, alongside ticketing and event updates.
Inner Circle has proven that there’s a hunger for curated, immersive events in Wellington and beyond. With a clear vision and a strong foundation, the brand is poised to redefine what immersive events can be.
What I did
Strategy
Discovery
Values, purpose, proposition and personality
Language, tone of voice and messaging
Competitor analysis
Design
Brand and visual design
Design systems and guidelines
Content and information architecture
Collateral design
Website design
Art direction
I'm always keen to collaborate when I have the time. Give me a shout about an upcoming project, email:
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