RAHMI HALABY
For The Roots’ Road to Roots program, I developed the creative for a campaign inviting local artists to compete for a slot on the Roots Picnic stage. Built around archival concert photography of Philly drummer Joey Stixx and the visual language of 1960s and ’70s Black liberation movements, the campaign ran digitally and out of home and drew a record 500+ submissions.
The Road to Roots Campaign
Client.
Live Nation (Roots Picnic)
Category.
Brand Expression
Contributors.
Rahmi Halaby
Dave Silver
Chris Hupfelt
Tim Huff
As a kid, I grew up worshipping Questlove. I was introduced to The Roots by my father through the sounds of Do You Want More?!!!??! on repeat on the cassette tape player in our 1991 Subaru station wagon. As a fellow young black drummer from Philadelphia with a love for all different kinds of music, I saw myself in the Roots crew. They combined rap, jazz, world music, and even rock in ways that I didn't know were possible.
When I was tasked with developing the creative for The Road to Roots Campaign, I knew one thing. It would have drums.
The Road to Roots is a special live performance and content series curated by The Roots to highlight influential black voices, musicians, and creatives across genre. The campaign would live digitally and out of home with the goal being to drive submissions where one local artist or group would be selected to take the famed Roots Picnic stage at the 2024 festival.
To get the word out, Live Nation partnered with RECphilly, a Philadelphia based creative incubator. They were able to supply me with a large library of past Philly area concert photos from venues all over the city. During my digging through the archives, I stumbled across a set of photos from a concert that I had actually attended.
It was Joey Stixx of the Ill Fated Natives. The energy of this concert had left a distinct memory. It was a local group and I could feel the gritty chip on their shoulder that Philly energy carries but they also felt like rockstars. The feeling that this concert brought me and the energy of Joey Stixx would be the basis of this campaign.
Philadelphia is a very proud black city and with the campaign's goal of amplifying black voices, it felt natural to spend a lot of time looking through the graphical works of different black liberation groups of the 1960s and 70s, ultimately bringing elements like dominant sans serifs, a rough finish textured overlay, and black and red ink on cream stock.
I pitched 4 variations of 1 concept, with variations in layout and color. It was approved and we went to final revisions.
Some of these are mockups that were presented to the team during final approvals and never saw production.
The campaign drove a record high number of submission with over 500 local artists throughout the tri state area throwing their hat in the ring to be selected. Ultimately, Chioke was the artist selected to take the stage.
Keep the Faith
