Sophomore Sofia Limena Designs Poster for Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival
This fall, the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival (PIJF) will celebrate its 15th anniversary with a new visual identity—one created by Carnegie Mellon School of Design sophomore Sofia Limena. Limena’s poster was selected through the festival’s inaugural design competition, in the student award category, marking her first time working on a public-facing commission while still a student.
“This competition provided guidelines rather than a client, which meant there was very little discussion or feedback loop with the intended audience,” said Limena. “My creative decisions were guided by my own interpretation of the directions, so I had to trust my design instincts, finding ways to communicate intent and create resonance without direct client input”.
Her final design celebrates both jazz and the city of Pittsburgh. “My favourite part of the design is how the Three Sisters bridges frame the musicians. I can imagine jazz music spilling out from restaurants and filling the streets around these bridges during the actual festival and wanted to create the sense that the festival was ongoing within the composition itself,” Limena explained. “Further, the bridges’ colours are so distinctly Pittsburgh in my mind that they had to be included!”
Limena also thought carefully about the dynamism of jazz in her composition. “The groups are arranged in common instrument pairings for jazz trios and quartets, but I wanted the rhythm of the music to be felt off the page. That’s why each person is oriented in a different direction with abstract, jutting out limbs and pointed instruments—it sharply invites the viewer’s eyes from every angle and dances off the page,” she said. Her palette, with “rich saffron oranges and bright yellows to evoke its energy and warmth, balanced with deep, earthy greens that reflect the human element of the genre,” reinforces that sense of movement. A subtle “15” hidden on the drum nods to the milestone anniversary.
Designing for a city she’s still getting to know presented a unique challenge. “The challenge in designing this poster was finding a way to authentically represent the culture of Pittsburgh, especially as an international student who has only lived here for a year,” she reflected. “Pittsburghers are deeply passionate about their home, and I wanted to create something that would resonate with them—something locals could look at and feel had been designed by someone who knows the city well, despite my newness!”
For Limena, seeing her work live beyond the studio is especially meaningful. “I’m honoured that my poster will be featured on the institute’s website! This year marks the festival’s 15th anniversary, and their very first poster competition—so I feel lucky to be a small part of festival history.”
“I’ve wanted to do a poster competition for about 10 years, and I’m so pleased that we are able to do it on our 15th anniversary,” said Janis Burley, CEO/President of the August Wilson African American Cultural Center and producer of PIJF. “Romare Bearden was influenced by jazz in his paintings, sculptor Thad Mosely has referenced jazz as a muse, channeling the improvisational methods in jazz as inspiration. I wanted to introduce a visual art complement to the presentation of music at the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival, and for our inaugural poster contest, the submissions from artists around the world exceeded our expectations. The creativity, variety of styles from minimal to highly detailed and colorful made judging an exhilarating challenge.”
The Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival, hosted by the August Wilson African American Cultural Center, will take place on September 18th.