Burning Man Rebrand

Burning Man is a temporary city built by its participants; I reimagined its identity to make that collective creativity visible.

I approached the rebrand as a system people could change. ASCII characters became a way to connect individual expression with a shared visual language.

Making heat visible

I used the desert’s temperature shifts to guide the color system, then explored how the density of ASCII characters could carry that energy. Repetition gave the identity continuity and room for variation.

Color research from the project presentation, including temperature, heat, and cinematic references — Color research

A shared visual language

I tested the relationship between small characters and large type across posters, tickets, and objects. The same rules could shift in scale while keeping the identity recognizable.

Burning Man orange identity poster with an ASCII texture

Community and culture poster using image fragments and orange type blocks

Burning Man principles arranged across an ASCII field

Burning Man Axis Mundi ticket held in two hands

White T-shirt with the Burning Man identity on sand

The identity moves from something held in the hand to something read at a distance.

Burning Man roadside billboard in a mountain landscape

From day to night

For Axis Mundi, I shifted the focus from desert heat to human presence. Heat-inspired color and Fayte Pixel gave the night experience a more expressive voice within the same system.

Heat color reference alongside the Fayte Pixel type specimen from the presentation — Heat study and Fayte Pixel type reference

Black Rock Desert poster with lime lettering and layered thermal colors

Axis Mundi poster with distorted lime lettering and ASCII texture

Find your outcast poster with a colorful heat-inspired field

Testing the scale

I carried the visual language into billboards and performance settings to see how it could hold a space. Changes in scale and color let the system support different moments of the experience.

Axis Mundi night billboard in the desert

Axis Mundi stage concept with a yellow and green screen

Axis Mundi stage concept with a magenta and cyan screen

Wide stage concept with thermal portraits and a participating crowd

Close view of a DJ against the Axis Mundi visual system

A gathering point made of people

I interpreted Axis Mundi as a shared tree built from participants’ portraits. The installation concept turns individual contributions into a collective presence.

Concept for a tree-shaped installation made from screens showing participants’ portraits

Letting people shape the image

I explored how a camera-based portrait could become material for the identity. The kiosk concept lets participants adjust their image, keep a copy, and contribute it to the shared installation.

Interactive kiosk concept showing a live heat-inspired portrait and controls

Kiosk concept showing options to save a portrait or contribute to the installation

Concept for participatory kiosks distributed around a desert gathering space

Designing rules for many outcomes

Working with generative tools pushed me to think about consistency through behavior. I could define a set of rules and leave space for people and chance to change the result.

A close-up of the ASCII character field from the poster generator

ASCII poster generator Axis Mundi heatmap

Collaborative concept project

ASCII Outcasts · Elaine, Kevin Sun, Christina
Generative Design · Spring 2026

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