New Orleans:
JAZZ & HERITAGE FESTIVAL
Festival Brochure Project
Typography II | Jazz & Heritage & VOODOO
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From religion and rebels to witches and devils, New Orleans was born as a city with a heart of beauty, art, culture, music, and voodoo magic. The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival is about the history of the city. Jazz music was born there and just like the love for voodoo magic, it is a part of the city’s heritage. Louisiana Voodoo, also known as New Orleans Voodoo, describes a set of spiritual folkways developed from the traditions of the African diaspora. It is a cultural form of the Afro-American religions developed by West and Central African populations of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Voodoo is one of many incarnations of African-based spiritual folkways rooted in West African Dahomeyan Vodun. Voodoo became synchronized with the Catholic and Francophone culture of New Orleans, as a result of the African cultural oppression in the region resulting from the Atlantic slave trade. New Orleans Spiritualist churches honor the spirit of Black Hawk, a Sauk war chief who was influential in early 19th-century Illinois and Wisconsin.
The New Orleans Spiritualist religion is a blend of Spiritualism, Vodun, Catholicism, and Pentecostalism. The design of this brochure is a voodoo style to connect the heritage side of the festival to the historical heritage of the city. The brochure is decorated with voodoo dolls, along with stars, constellations, and the moon (crescent, full, blue, or most likely blood). There are also a pentagram, voodoo symbols, musical notes, and symbols that represent the voodoo gods.
For the performers’ schedule, only a few lists were selected to be shown in the brochure. These lists started with the name of the locations and then the schedule list telling who will be performing and when. These pages have a number of images of the performers to give people a better idea on who is playing and if they have heard of them before. The parade section is a bit more minimalistic with a simple list of times, less imagery, and icons of the sponsors. The history and culture sections of the brochure have information on how this festival started and its importance to the community, with images from the past and present festivals.
