Translating Manchester’s underground music culture into a large-scale live identity system
Spotify and Budweiser partnered to create Music Depot — a large-scale live music experience in Manchester designed to bring Budweiser to the foreground of contemporary music culture.
The challenge was not simply designing event graphics, but creating a coherent identity system inspired by Manchester’s underground music scene and capable of blending Spotify’s visual language with Budweiser’s iconic branding without diluting either identity.
Working closely with Spotify’s experiential team, Major Keys led the graphic identity development and rollout across environmental graphics, merchandise, signage, digital assets, and audience touchpoints.
Client
Spotify and Budweiser
Scope
Design direction
Event identity system
Environmental graphics rollout
The creative approach drew inspiration from Manchester’s industrial and musical heritage, particularly the visual culture surrounding Factory Records and The Haçienda during the late 1970s and 1980s.
Industrial typography, distressed textures, warehouse materials, fly-posting aesthetics, and high-contrast graphic treatments were combined with Spotify’s contemporary visual systems and Budweiser’s unmistakable red palette to create a visual language that felt culturally grounded rather than superficially branded.
Early stages of the project focused on stakeholder alignment and spatial visualisation. We developed extensive in-situ mockups across key environments — including bars, merchandise areas, stage graphics, and wayfinding systems — helping teams understand how the identity would function cohesively throughout the venue.
Following approval, the project expanded into a large-scale rollout involving more than 200 assets across print, digital, environmental, and experiential applications within a compressed production timeline.
The final identity system balanced cultural atmosphere with operational clarity, creating a visually coherent live environment across performance, audience, and sponsor touchpoints.
“Major Keys adhere perfectly to brand guidelines but also really get under the skin of a brand personality to understand where they can flex the visual language to be more experimental and playful.”
Alice Smith
Senior Global Manager, Experiential Production
Spotify