National Sawdust is a nonprofit arts and music organization that commissions and produces innovative new music in a state-of-the-art setting housed in a former factory in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Founded in 2015, National Sawdust is known as an “incubator” of emerging talent, as a dynamic community gathering space, and as a venue with pristine acoustics in partnership with Meyer Sound.

National Sawdust wanted to roll out its fifth anniversary season as a moment of celebration for the organization, titling the season “Taking Root.” Acknowledging the five-year milestone was an important way for the organization to reflect on its founding and its impact, and to look forward to the next stage in its trajectory. Studio Loutsis focused on the concept of “process” to define the direction for National Sawdust’s fifth season, since one of the organization’s defining features is the active role it plays in art and music; it is not simply a venue, but rather a partner for the artists it works with. We wanted to reference both the creative side of process and its rigor, through hand-drawn elements and a dynamic work-in-progress feel. Positioning process as both a noun and a verb, our team embraced imperfection and risk as crucial to growth. Studio Loutsis’s designs for print and web collateral, including invitations, calendars, newsletters, posters, and more, featured electric color duos, duotone imagery, and drawn lines that recall editing marks. Together, these elements created a sense of excitement for the upcoming performances at the same time that they cemented National Sawdust’s identity within the contemporary music space.