Sun God Festival '24

For the 16th year, A.S. Graphic Studio partnered with A.S. Concerts & Events (ASCE) to reimagine the visual identity of Sun God Festival, UC San Diego’s signature student-curated music and arts event. Graphic artist Thoa Nguyen worked closely with the ASCE team to bring their vision into a complete brand ecosystem including festival identity, merchandise design, and a full social media overhaul. The process began with extensive moodboarding and research where multiple directions were tested, from retro nostalgia to underground experimental aesthetics. Ultimately, the chosen path embraced a futuristic, chrome-forward identity, which Thoa described as “the antonym of a “cloudy, fairy-like fever dream.” Drawing inspiration from K-pop visual culture, particularly Aespa’s My World, Savage, and Girls albums, Thoa developed distorted, spiky logo explorations that evolved into a final mylar-balloon chrome logo. To support this identity, Thoa built a scalable asset library consisting of emblematic marks, decorative motifs, and interface-inspired elements designed to extend the brand identity beyond the core logo across merchandise, stage visuals, and digital campaigns.

Thoa began with testing different treatments of the chrome wordmark across mockups of T-shirts and hoodies. Apparel included a ribbed crop top, logo tees, and a hoodie featuring both the spiky wordmark and emblem-based back prints. Accessories such as the embroidered trucker hat, messenger bag, crossbody bag, and a puffy chrome star keychain showcased versatility in applying the identity at different scales. Key pieces included a ribbed crop top and festival logo tee, both featuring the reflective, mylar-inspired typography that anchored the campaign. A sleek embroidered trucker hat and messenger bag highlighted the spikier wordmark explorations, while a crossbody bag paired the emblematic chrome crest with abstract supporting motifs. Smaller accessories like the puffy chrome star keychain and a commemorative sticker sheet provided accessible, collectible touchpoints for students.

The website was designed not only as an information hub but also as an immersive entry point into the festival’s futuristic brand identity. The development process centered on creating a visually rich experience that integrated bold typography, cyberpunk motifs, type-driven graphics, and vector illustrations to extend the festival’s aesthetic online. Drawing inspiration from platforms where users enter digital worlds through console prompts and sci-fi visuals, web developer Edward New collaborated with Thoa to make the page feel like a heads-up display (HUD). On the development side, Edward created interactive features that supported the theme. These included a mini map cursor tracker that displayed live X and Y coordinates, console style overlays with prompts such as “System Activated, Access Granted” to simulate a digital mainframe, and subtle cues like “Scroll for the countdown” that used motion and positioning to guide users.

A.S. Graphic Studio
Thoa Nguyen, Edward New

Triton Outfitters
Abigail Sebert, Zoe Samuels, Andrew Alvarado

ASCE
Tom Rufino, Carolyn Ta, Wendy Tran, Andy Tran, Olivia Tsou, Nicole Zhi

Photographers
Ting Blount, Peter Moua, Tobin Caldwell

Models
Kayla Deserva, Lori Gonzales, Alexandria Ross, Q’Shawn Thwreatt, Justin Yook